Roy’s surprise at transfer news outside a chip shop
Cup ties give lower- league players a chance to show their talent to a wider audience.
The Falkirk boys can put themselves in the shop window by impressing against Rangers in this afternoon’s live TV clash.
These days, of course, they all have agents looking out for their interests.
Their work gets underway when the transfer window opens in just over a month’s time.
It was all very different when Roy Kemp was on the wing for Falkirk 50 years ago.
He found out he was on the move to England outside a local chip shop!
And the source of the information was a good friend – who was being bought to take his shirt.
Roy had 20 games under his belt for the Bairns after being brought into their first-team when he was only 18.
He’d been in the side at the start of the 1960- 61 season and played in a 4- 4 draw with Hamilton Accies at the end of October.
But, unknown to him, plans were afoot to replace him.
He recalled: “I was walking down the street in Falkirk one day when I saw a crowd of lads standing on the corner beside the chip shop.
“One of them called me over and I saw it was my friend, Alex Duchart. He and I used to stay just 500 yards away from one another.
“He said I was being transferred to Carlisle United. I told him that couldn’t be true. I knew nothing about it.
“But he knew it was happening because
Falkirk couldn’t sign him from Dumbarton without a player being moved on.
“The way things worked back then, I didn’t have much option but to go.
“Tommy Younger had signed me for Falkirk, but he’d been replaced by Alex Mccrae.
“I remember going to training on a night of bucketing rain and being told by our coach, Bill Brown, that the boss wanted me to go.
“He said that if I didn’t sign, they’d make my life hell.
“I went down to Carlisle on loan, and English football was a bit of an eye-opener.
“Falkirk freed me at the end of the season. I was that fed up that I went back to the Juniors with Camelon.”
That wasn’t the end of Roy’s career, though. He was a man in demand before and after his time with Falkirk.
He said: “I could have joined Motherwell before signing for Falkirk.
“Bobby Ancell – the manager who formed the famous ‘Ancell Babes’ – told me he hadn’t seen me himself, but he wanted me on the recommendation of his chief scout.
“I was only 17, but I said no. I really wasn’t sure about joining a club where the manager had never watched me play.
“After Falkirk, I got a Scottish Junior cap against Northern Ireland in 1962. I was on the left wing and Jimmy Johnstone was on the right.”
Roy scored in that game, a 4-1 victory. It seemed he was getting the break his talent deserved – but an unlucky one was just round the corner.
He went on: “I’d been with Camelon for a month when Willie Reid signed me for St Mirren.
“They left me in the juniors for a year and then I joined them to play in the First Division.
“But in November, 1962, I suffered a broken leg after 10 minutes of a game against Hearts at Tynecastle.
“I listened on the radio in hospital. There were no substitutes back then and we lost 5-0.”
Curiously, that was St Mirren’s 13th broken leg in 13 seasons.
Roy added: “I was plastered from hip to toe and I don’t think I was ever quite the same when I came back.
“Jackie Cox had taken over as manager, and he signed Bobby Carroll from Celtic.
“I got a few more games before I left in 1964.” Roy, now 79, then played for Rhyl in thewelsh League before joining Melbourne Croatia and spending three years in Australia.