Chic’s tears for ’father figure’ he adored
Tributes, tears and triumphs ... the Red Adair of Ruchill remembered and celebrated
CHIC Charnley choked back tears as he paid an emotional tribute to former Partick Thistle manager John Lambie, who has died aged 77. Lambie passed
away at an Edinburgh hospital yesterday after a long illness and Scottish football was last night in mourning over the loss of one of its greatest characters.
The former Falkirk and St Johnstone full-back spent four spells in charge at Firhill and also had two stints at Hamilton Accies, famously knocking a Rangers side bossed by Graeme Souness out of the Scottish Cup.
He was renowned for his rehabilitation of bad boys – including Charnley, who became an icon to the Jags faithful under Lambie’s management.
Chic sobbed: “John was a father figure to me and we’ve been in each other’s lives since the day I first signed for him at Hamilton Accies.
“We were on the phone right until the end, talking two and three times a week. When I saw him last on Friday in hospital he was shirricking me still.
“He said something I didn’t catch and when I asked him to repeat himself, he pulled me close and said, ‘Are you f ****** deaf?’
“I adored him. I can’t believe I won’t see him again.
“I don’t have a favourite memory of him. John being my pal was always enough for me. He was absolutely unique.”
THE pigeons are refusing to leave their dookits out of respect. The heads of the donkeys on Blackpool beach are this morning bowed a little lower.
John Lambie’s sad passing yesterday at the age of 77 has robbed Scottish football one of its most colourful characters.
As former players were quick to point out yesterday it has also cost our game one of the best and most decorated managers of his generation.
Lambie was behind the wheel when he led his beloved Partick Thistle into the Premier League less than three years after the Red Adair of Ruchill arrived to prevent their plummet into the old Third Division.
He was also behind the wheel in 1996 when a disgruntled Falkirk fan forgot the fine service of more than 200 games he gave them as a former BY GARY RALSTON galloping full-back and tried to run him off the road after a cup defeat to Stenhousemuir.
He took Hamilton Accies into the top flight in 1986 and after a terrible start vowed not to have sex until they won – it took them a further 20 matches to notch a victory and, presumably, the manager his bedpost.
Lambie regularly took his teams to Blackpool for five-day training camps in the depths of January – by sheer coincidence always at the same time as the annual British pigeon fanciers’ convention was being hosted at the Winter Gardens.
On an infamous occasion Jim Duffy and Co tried to throw him in the sea after a training session on the sands and succeeded only on toppling him on to rocks, leaving him with a punctured lung and cracked ribs that required an extended stay in hospital.
Danny Lennon was Lambie’s inspirational skipper who led the club to the Second and First Division titles in 2001 and 2002, securing his place alongside his gaffer and mentor in the Firhill Hall of Fame.
And Clyde boss Lennon said: “He lived on the same street as me when I was a kid growing up in Whitburn. He was coach at Hibs and we used to play on the pitch at the back of his house desperately hoping he’d look out the window and catch our fledgling talent.
“John’s fantastic knowledge of football must never be forgotten. You could not win as many promotions and championships as he did without understanding the game and its players.
“He was especially good at building teams and a man of enormous personal integrity. It was a privilege and honour to play for him and be named his captain. He made his players feel 10 feet tall.”
Lambie cursed like a trooper and was a Christian who attended his local church in Bathgate. He was Richard Burton to Partick Thistle’s Elizabeth Taylor, Dick Dastardly to Maryhill’s Muttley.
He was as sharp as a tack, famously ad-libbing to the Jags’ physio when told striker Colin
McClashan didn’t know who he was after a head knock, “Just get him back out there and tell him he’s Pele”.
Lambie spent 16 seasons as a player with Falkirk and St Johnstone before moving into coaching, firstly at Saints and then under Eddie Turnbull and Bertie Auld at Hibs.
He guided Accies to two First Division titles in 1986 and 1988 and famously knocked Rangers, bossed by Graeme Souness, out of the Scottish Cup. He was appointed Partick Thistle manager in 1988 for the first time, spent five years at the club from 1990, securing Premier Division promotion in 1992.
Following his ill-fated stint at Brockville he moved back to Jags in 1999 and led the club to the top flight amid a backdrop of financial uncertainty.
He had the knack of disciplining players for misdemeanours and yet making them love him even more in the process. Lennon said: “He claimed a group of us broke a curfew that didn’t even exist on one of his winter breaks and we were quickly named the Blackpool Seven. “He called a kangaroo court with striker Paul McGrillen the jailer and the rest of the lads who didn’t go out that night made members of the jury. “He bribed them openly by handing out bottles of Budweiser from his fridge while he outlined a series of allegations against us, all based on evidence
our kitmen Chico and Ricky had planted.
“The seven of us had Fruit of the Loom T-shirts printed up declaring our innocence – and he promptly fined us £50 for having the audacity to wear them.
“The rest of the players found us guilty, wee McGrillen confirmed the decision and John fined us an additional £100.
“Allan Moore refused to accept the decision and John asked if the court should discuss further his behaviour of a month earlier.
“He’d come into training steaming after the Christmas night out, still in his Ugly Sisters costume from the fancy dress party, and trained in stockings and suspenders.
“Wee Allan turned quietly to John and said, ‘I’ll just take the £100 fine’.”