Horror scenes will live with me for ever
Sanny recalls Ayr’s African adventure
Sanny McAnespie was an Honest Man for 15 years – but nothing surpassed a trip to Nigeria.
Ayr headed to Africa in the summer of 1976 for a three game tour that left Alex Stuart’s men shocked to the core.
Skipper Johnny Graham was confronted by a gun totting guard while there were bodies lying on the streets and numbing scenes of poverty, corruption and squalor.
Sanny, who had toured Canada and France with Ayr three years earlier, described the scenes as harrowing.
But he quipped: “We must have been good coaches when you look at Nigeria now qualifying for World Cups. We clearly taught them something.”
Sanny, 76, says the tour was an eye opener from the moment the players stepped off the plane from Prestwick.
Ayr had been told their base would be the same hotel where Paul McCartney and Wings stayed three years earlier when recording Band on the Run.
But one look at the shabby accommodation prompted captain Graham to demand that the team be moved.
Sanny, who was inducted into the Ayr Hall of Fame in 2008, recalled: “The British Council quickly got involved and we were moved to the luxurious Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos where everything was out of this world.”
Ayr opened the tour with a 3- 1 win over Stationery Stores FC before a 50,000 crowd. Gerry Phillips struck a double while there was a debut goal from Johnny Gray who had been signed on a free transfer from Motherwell.
Four days later, another bumper turnout were stunned as a second double from Phillips and a strike from Rikki Fleming beat Enugu Rangers 3- 0.
The home team had beaten
Manchester City and Borussia Munich in previous visits so turned up expecting another foreign scalp.
Things turned sour before the third game which was to be played 400 miles away in Kaduna. The team had been decanted from their luxury hotel into the homes of local officials and were desperate to cut short the tour and return home early.
One group hoped to join a flight with Graham and Spud Murphy who it had already been agreed weren’t staying for the full excursion. But the Nigerian officials were having none of it.
In his autobiography, the late Graham recalled: “When an armed guard asked for my passport, I refused. He removed his automatic weapon from his shoulder and for the first time in my life I was looking down the nozzle of a loaded gun.”
The two players were eventually allowed to fly home but the rest stayed behind to endure a flight on the most basic of planes to complete the tour.
In Kaduna, Ayr were met by six inch grass and baying fans who crowded the touchlines.
A late controversial penalty gave former league winners Mighty Jets FC a 1- 0 win over an Ayr team who locals had billed as
Scottish champions but who were actually stands- ins for Man City who had pulled out.
Excited fans invaded the field at the end and tried to remove the strips and boots from the Ayr players who had to fight them off.
Sanny joined Ayr in 1964 from Craigmark and was a powerhouse defender until 1978 when he was freed after relegation from the Premier League.
After 376 league appearances over 14 seasons, he joined Cumnock Juniors and then managed Irvine Meadow before bossing Stranraer for eight years and leading them to the first ever promotion in 1993- 94.