A coveted youth international with scouts from across the country clamouring to point him in the direction of their club.
A teenager signed by St Johnstone in the late 70s.
An attacking prodigy in the eyes of Saints manager, Alex Stuart.
A Muirton Park debutant as a 16-year-old.
It’s the back-story of the most famous footballer to start his professional career in Perth.
It’s also the back-story of a great ‘if only’.
Ally McCoist needs no introduction to Saints supporters of any age. Make that football supporters of any age.
Vic Robertson though, is a name you’ll struggle to find in the pages of a St Johnstone book or mentioned beyond the microscopic world of club historians.
It took a bit of confusion on the second Saturday of this season’s Viaplay Cup, following Ben McCrystal’s late goal at Alloa, to put Robertson’s name into the mainstream.
When the 16-year-old scored Saints’ fourth that afternoon, the work started to see where McCrystal placed in the ‘youngest ever’ goalscorer charts?
In fourth, it turns out.
Behind Stevie May. Yes, heard of him.
Behind Jimmy Benson as well. Another Saints great – the only player with a substantial body of Muirton or McDiarmid work to his name who averaged more than a goal a game.
McCrystal, May, Benson, McCoist, Alex MacDonald, or any other young St Johnstone player you care to mention – all are behind a footballer who drifted into the Stirling Juniors and then obscurity.
The man who, for the thick end of five decades, wasn’t even aware that what he achieved as a boy of 16 years, four months and 20 days in Dumfries on the 29th of September, 1976, with a shot from outside the box, earned him a piece of Perth sporting history.
Robertson remains St Johnstone’s Michael Owen, Norman Whiteside and Cesc Fabregas.
Fran Franczak has just replaced him as the club’s youngest player but he’ll need to find the net in the next three months to replace him as the youngest goal-scorer.
Enduring pride
“I knew that I was only 16 when I scored,” said Robertson, now 63. “But I didn’t have a clue I was the youngest.
“Nobody pulled me aside to tell me at the time, that’s for sure. And I certainly wasn’t aware as the years went by.
“It’s something to be proud of that it still stands.
“I’ve got three sons and it’s a nice thing to be able to tell them. And I make sure it gets mentioned in the pub!”
Without being arrogant, Robertson did know he was very good at football and scoring goals. Selection as the baby of a formidable Scotland age-group team told him that.
“The likes of Eamonn Bannon, Billy Kirkwood, Derek Stark who made it with Dundee United were in my Scottish Schoolboys side,” he recalled. “It was under-18s and I was only 15.
“The brother of my nephew’s dad is Duncan Ferguson.
“I was probably getting the same sort of hype when I was breaking through as Duncan went on to get at the same age.
“I was playing with and against guys who went to the top – like Gary Gillespie.
“I wouldn’t say they were any better than I was at that age.
“When you’re in the Scottish Schoolboys as young as I was people were talking about how far I would go in the game. Would I play for Scotland? That sort of thing.”
From Stirling to Muirton Park
St Johnstone were a top-flight club at the time. Even though the standards of the Ormond years had slipped, Muirton Park retained a pulling power for a promising player looking to gain a foothold in the game.
“I was signed from Stirling Boys Club as an S Form,” said Robertson. “I’d have been 13 or 14.
“The scout was a guy called John Campbell. I think he worked for the sports section of the Falkirk Herald.
“I’d go up to Perth during the summer holidays. Myself and a couple of other lads would get the train from Stirling and walk to Muirton.
“I was training with the first team boys pretty much straight away.
“Jackie Stewart was the manager and John Lambie was a coach.
“Henry Hall and Jim O’Rourke were still there when I was a boy – two great strikers to pick things up from.
“Gordon Smith was another top player – he went to Aston Villa. Bobby Thomson went to Middlesbrough.
“If I’m looking back and thinking who helped me back then, Ian Taylor would be one. He picked me up at Stirling for training. John Brogan was another.”
The League Cup started off with a group phase back in 1976.
And as was the case for Steven MacLean and his current Saints squad this summer, results (five defeats and a draw) were pretty grim.
“The club had gone part-time,” he said. “They’d just been relegated from the Premier Division.
“I didn’t have any school qualifications but I got a job working for John Menzies.
“The first game of the old League Cup sections was at Ibrox and I was part of the squad.
“One of the guys had a late fitness test and was passed fit so I didn’t get a strip for that game.
“I was a Rangers supporter. I’d have had to go up against John Greig but I’m sure I’d have got by him!
“I made my debut in the next game – a 0-0 draw with Montrose at Muirton.
“It certainly felt like a big deal to me. I was just a boy.
“I used to like cleaning my own football boots – wash them, clean them with newspaper and get some turps on the white stripes.
“I was at my work through the day and got a phone call from the manager – it was Jim Storrie by this time.
“He said ‘your boots aren’t here’.
“I told him I had them at home and he said ‘well you better get them because you’re playing tonight!’
“That was how I found out I’d be starting.
“I was back on the bench for the next couple of games and then I started at Easter Road. I was up against the likes of John Blackley, John Brownlie and Erich Schaedler.
“I played the full game.
“We did OK in the first half and were only 2-1 down. I did quite well.
“The second half wasn’t so good – it ended up 9-2!”
A goal fit for a record
Six-and-a-half weeks after making his St Johnstone debut, Robertson scored his one and only goal and claimed his record.
Replacing Bobby McGuinness at 0-0 in a midweek First Division clash against Queen of the South at Palmerston, he smashed home a winner from 25 yards out into the goal to the right of the Main Stand.
“I can picture it still,” said Robertson. “I was out wide and drifted in – I’d always played as a striker through school but Saints used me on the right a lot because I had a bit of pace.
“And I can certainly remember the name of the goalkeeper – it’s not one you’d forget. Alan Ball.
“I was going daft, as you could imagine. It didn’t know what to do with myself. I was running about like a headless chicken.
“Something sticks in my mind that Saints hadn’t won away for 29 games (it was actually 33, spanning three seasons).
“The players were pleased for me but I wouldn’t say it was a great dressing room at the time.
“The manager was under pressure and there were a few of them who didn’t care enough.
“There were some cocky ones who thought they were stars.
“Back then I didn’t really know any different because I was a boy in amongst some household names.”
Unfulfilled promise
That night would turn out to be as good as it got, a St Johnstone career and football career peaking in front of 1,600 spectators at the beginning of a season that came close to ending in a second successive relegation.
There were just two more starts in 1976/77 and not even a place on the bench the following campaign.
Then the last sighting or Robertson in St Johnstone colours was the definition of unremarkable – sub for a pre-season friendly against Swindon Town in August, 1978.
Not that Saints had given up on him by then, mind you.
In the match day programme for a game against Hamilton Accies a couple of months later, manager Alex Stuart’s hopes of helping Robertson to fulfil his rich talent were put in black and white.
The ‘Talking Point’ feature posed the question – what has happened to striker Victor Robertson?
“He was almost the forgotten lad of Muirton.
“Until together, Alex Stuart and Doug Houston saw him play against his home town team.
“The potential of Victor astonished his bosses.
“Indeed he impressed so much that he is one of several singled out for special attention. The VIP treatment will make a welcome change for the former Stirling Boys’ Club right-winger.
“He tended to be neglected. He was discouraged last season when there was talk of sending him to a Lothians junior club. Now, he has been told that if he is determined to work at his game there could be a bright future for him.
“First, he must be prepared for sterner training and shed a few pounds in weight. It is the considered view of Alex Stuart that a number of Saints’ young lads need to achieve a higher standard of fitness.”
Robertson probably didn’t read the programme. He definitely didn’t read the room.
‘Knocked off track’
“I had a chance,” he said. “I blew it big-time, I suppose.
“My dad (George) used to go everywhere with me and he died when I was 17. He was only 48.
“That was a big loss in my life.
“I ended up getting married around that time and became a parent myself when I had just turned 18.
“With my dad dying, I lost a couple of years of my life really. And they turned out to be important years for me as a footballer.
“He was such a big influence.
“In hindsight, it knocked me off track.
“I needed someone to give me a push and dad wasn’t there anymore to do it.
“I wasn’t looking after myself properly – eating the wrong things. I had a few weight issues.
“There were three different managers in my time with Saints, which didn’t help either.
“Jackie Stewart thought a lot of me. He signed me. I had a lot of respect for him.
“I didn’t play for six months after leaving Saints and then signed for Sauchie juniors.
“I started well there but I fell out with them too.
“By that time I was right overweight. I ended up going amateur and even struggled to get a game there because of my weight and fitness.
“Looking back, you’ve got to be fit, live right and stay away from the things that will get in the way of your football. Listen to the right people.”
Saints legend, Brogan, certainly fell into that category.
“Brogie was dedicated,” said Robertson. “I bumped into him when he was the manager at Stirling.
“They were training at King’s Park one night.
“I waited to have a wee talk with him at the end. Obviously, I had to introduce myself because I’d changed a fair bit.
“You know what he said to me…… ‘see you son, you were a ****ing waster’.
“He knew I had the talent but didn’t do nearly enough with it.”
Heavy metal in the Station Hotel
Robertson had a more recent opportunity to reminisce about his Muirton Park days.
“I bumped into an old Saints team-mate in Stirling a few years ago,” he said.
“My cousin said ‘there was a guy in the Scots Wha Hae pub who was asking for you……John somebody’.
“Some time after that I was in there and I heard this voice. It was John Mackay – the first St Johnstone Cup-tie!
“We had a great blether.
“We were laughing about an overnight in Perth we had before a game at Dens Park.
“I think it was the Station Hotel we were staying in.
“Myself and John were rooming together.
“Mackay loved the heavy metal.
“We were shouting down to reception for sandwiches and all sorts while he’s got his music full blast and standing on the bed with his air guitar.
“The manager, Jim Storrie, burst through the door. ‘What the **** are you two doing? You’ve got a game tomorrow!’
“It turned out we didn’t because it got cancelled with the weather.”
At 16 years and 38 days old Fran Franczak became our youngest ever player taking over from Vic Robertson who was 16 years, 4 months and 20 days back in September 1976 👏
Only 4 players have played for first team aged 16:
Fran Franczak
Vic Robertson
Stevie May
Jimmy Benson pic.twitter.com/23tMkNb3LN— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) September 24, 2023
Robertson would love to make a first-ever trip to McDiarmid Park. If it’s to shake the hand of young Franczak after he’s broken a second long-standing record, all the better.
“I’ve had it for a while now so if someone can score younger than I was, then good luck to him,” he said.
“I certainly always look out for St Johnstone results. Seeing them win those trophies was incredible, especially the double. It was brilliant.
“It would be great to go to McDiarmid.
“I’ve been in the Muirton Asda – that gave me goosebumps. If those walls could talk there would be some stories.
“Maybe I should go to Palmerston as well!”
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