TV star’s football tweet is helping me beat grief of losing my mum
Ex-wonder kid says message eased his pain eased his pain
A one- time football wonder kid has revealed how a tweet from Line of Duty’s Martin Compston helped him cope with the loss of his mum.
The actor, who played for Morton as a teenager, named Mark Molloy as the best young player he’s ever seen.
Martin was backed up by the likes of current Dundee boss James McPake and ex-Partick Thistle midfielder Gary Harkins online.
Mark, from Chapelhall in Lanarkshire, was once the most sought- after youngster in British football.
He was courted by Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Everton, West Ham and Celtic.
But after suffering a serious leg break at 14 playing for Scotland against England in the Victory Shield, his progress was curtailed.
Despite signing for Celtic and later Hibs, his playing career stalled.
Mark, 36, became a PE teacher and now runs Soccer Superstars, his academy for kids.
His mum Theresa died on Thursday, days after Martin’s message – and Mark admitted it had a positive impact on the whole family.
He said: “We’ve been going through a tough time as a family. My mum was in hospital and passed away.
“So this was something positive, it helped to take my mind off it.
“All the family were talking about it so it has kept us going.
“Even my mum said something about it. She was really ill but told me she’d heard about it – she loved it.
“So from a family perspective, it’s been really positive.
“That game Martin is talking about was over 20 years ago so it’s amazing that he remembers, especially from a guy who’s done really well for himself in his own career.
“It was very surreal but nice to read. I’m normally just on Facebook with my football academy stuff but the Twitter thing exploded. I’ve never been on it as much.
“A lot of people got in touch, with messages back and forth, and even my local MP got involved as well.
“Sometimes I’ ll be having a beer with mates and they’ ll talk about how good I was as a kid but I tell them to be quiet – I’m 36, it was 20 years ago now. But then I got that tweet from Martin and it brought back nice memories.
“All my pals were texting me about it, saying, ‘Look, even he’s saying it.’”
While film star Martin hailed Mark as the most talented young player he’s ever gone up against, Mark can’t remember the game in question.
In fact, he thought he’d only ever seen the Scots icon on the telly.
He said: “I don’t know Martin at all. If I’m honest, I can barely remember the match he’s talking about.
“It was a game for my old school, St Patrick’s High School, a Scottish Cup tie. I don’t recall playing against him, I thought I’d never met him before.
“So it all felt a bit surreal. It was a strange moment when I looked at my phone. My mate, James McPake, texted to say Martin had tweeted about me.
“But all I could think about was, ‘God, I’ve watched him quite a lot on the telly recently.’”