Sir Stanley tried to turn Alex on to carrot juice
Young footballers often benefit from the guidance of established players during the early part of their career.
Sometimes that advice lasts a lifetime. Alex Donald is still beating opponents at the age of 70 – with a little help from the legendary Sir Stanley Matthews.
The Wizard of the Dribble signed Alex for Port Vale when he was 17 in October, 1965.
It was the young winger’s pace that caught the great man’s eye.
More than 50 years later, Alex showed he’s still fleet of foot by winning three medals at the Scottish Masters athletics championship three months ago.
He was a top sprinter at school before being spotted playing for Pumpherston Juniors.
Alex recalled: “Port Vale took a lot of young Scottish lads down for trials after Stanley Matthews took over as general manager.
“I went down and signed straight away. “I remember getting off the train at Crewe, and Matthews was waiting to pick me up in his rollsroyce. This man was like the Pele of his day.
“Former Scotland striker, Jackie Mudie, was manager and over the next two or three months, a number of my fellow Scots joined the club.
“I made my first-team debut against Bradford at the start of 1966.
“That day we fielded the youngest forward line in the history of the Football League. Roddy Georgeson, Mick Cullerton and I were all 17. Paul Bannister was 18 and Paul Ogden 19.”
Alex spent three seasons at Vale Park and, naturally, the times he lined-up alongside a legend like Matthews stick in his memory.
He said: “I played with him in a few testimonials. There was one at Hereford, where John Charles was playing for them, and his brother, Mel, was in our side.
“The club had a lot of financial problems at that time. Some of it came from fines imposed for making illegal payments.
“That led to the ‘Valiant Vale Fund’ being set up, and a fund-raising game took place between a Port Vale select and a Midlands XI.
“I played at outside right, with Stanley Matthews as the inside man. Nat Lofthouse was centre-forward, Jackie Mudie was insideleft and Tom Finney was on the other wing.
“I was destroying Aston Villa full-back, Stan Lynn, but my final ball wasn’t the best.
“I’ll never forget Tom Finney coming over and giving me some advice about how to improve my crosses. It was a superb gesture.
“Matthews would regularly give us health tips, like trying to convince us to follow his love of carrot juice.”
A team-mate took Alex with him when they were freed by Port Vale.
He said: “Northern Ireland winger, Jimmy Hill, became manager of Derry City and persuaded me to move with him.
“After a couple of years, I moved on to Ballymena. Alex McCrae was manager and he’d tried to sign me for Falkirk when I was 17.
“I spent 12 seasons with them, but only played about 260 games because I worked shifts in the Michelin tyre factory and couldn’t always get off to play.
“There were some great times at the club, like European trips to play Beveren of Belgium, Vorwaerts of East Germany and Roma.”
Alex had a few spells as caretaker boss at Ballymena. Former Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels was one of his players at the time.
Football came to an end, but Alex stayed super fit, adding: “I ran marathons and trained a ladies’ hockey team.
“I’m now in the athletics over-70 category, and won a gold medal in the 400 metres, along with silvers in the 100 and 200.
“You don’t get a medal unless you meet a standard of time. Some see that as a bit elitist, but I’m delighted to still be competing.”