Midlands ‘ringer’ was Scots international

WithBrown

THE latest tale on George McLean has materialised from a recent contributor.

Last week, Grant Howitt told of his time with Newport Sports Centre in the local Dundee Sunday Welfare AFA.

The team was run by Chris Symes, who later wrote a book on his football exploits called ‘The Life And Times Of Symes’.

Chris also ran a Newport team in the Midlands AFA.

In one chapter of his book, he received a phone call from St Johnstone FC boss Alex Stuart.

“Alex asked for a favour,” revealed Chris. He wanted me to give George McLean, who played for Rangers, Dundee and Scotland, a run in our amateur game so he could assess his fitness. I duly did that Saturday – and we ran out 6-0 winners over a Dundee College side. George didn’t get on the scoresheet.

“The following day, I was stopped in the street by the league secretary who informed me there were complaints that we played a ‘ringer who was a Scottish senior international’ in our weekend fixture.

“I told him not to be daft and that somebody was just picking on us because we were a team from across the water in Fife and that we had won 6-0.

“The league secretary replied that ‘he thought as much’ – and we didn’t hear any more about the matter.”

ANOTHER to reply to our Dundee Sunday Welfare AFA tales was George Aimer.

Taxi driver of 30 years George opened: “A team not mentioned in your Welfare league article was the notorious Nelson Street Athletic, who played home games at Midmill Park, which is now Fairfield park.

“I had occasion to referee two of their games in succession.

“I had booked a few players in the first match and wasn’t really looking forward to the second encounter at Midmill.

“This time the opponents would be Fernie Thistle, another team not on your list.

“Anyway, I ended up sending off two players and ordering one of their officials, who was a postman, out of the ground for abusive conduct.”

George (64), a Dundee United fan and wellknown in football circles locally, continued: “I also sent off a Fernie player in a bizarre incident.

“He was about to be cautioned for scything down a Nelson player when the guy got up and headbutted him. I

Right – Scotland’s team prior to Brazil match in Paris in 1998. Back row (from left) – Christian Dailly, Colin Calderwood, Jim Leighton, Colin Hendry, Craig Burley, Gordon Durie. Front – Darren Jackson, Kevin Gallacher, John Collins, Tom Boyd, Paul Lambert.

George McLean during his time at Rangers.

George Aimer.