Clyde wing man could bank on a 4pm start
It’s the time of year when the weather can be a major player.
Clubs normally hope that freezing conditions don’t lead to a big cup game being postponed and rearranged for a midweek date.
It can be tricky enough for supporters to get to an evening kick-off – but how about a weekday afternoon?
It’s exactly 50 years since a Scottish Cup Second Round tie between Clyde and Celtic was declared off after a dawn inspection of the Shawfield pitch.
The announcement of the kick-off time for the rescheduled match didn’t go down too well – 4pm the following Wednesday.
The decision to play in the afternoon was taken on orders from the police.
They ruled that the all-ticket 25,000 crowd could be housed safely during daylight, but not if the game took place under floodlights.
A storm of protest followed from supporters’ groups, who were upset that, with no refunds on offer, it would be hard for some to make the match without taking time off work.
That could also apply to quite a number of the part-time Clyde players.
Winger Graham MacFarlane, however, was able to call on a football connection in his job.
He recalled: “I worked for a bank and Bert Cromar, who played for Queen’s Park, was my immediate boss.
“We used to get what were called ‘winter days’ to use every month, and he advised me to keep them for occasions when we had some distance to travel for a game.
“We used to work on a Saturday morning and I needed to take time off if we were going to play Aberdeen, which meant a full day travelling.
“A lot of my team-mates used to work for Dunn & Moore, the soft drinks firm, because the Dunn family had a close association with the club. They had no problem getting time off.”
The main talking point of the afternoon clash was that Celtic lost keeper Ronnie Simpson to injury after just 15 minutes.
Full-back Tommy Gemmell took over in goal and kept a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw.
Celtic then travelled to draw 0-0 with AC Milan in the European Cup before returning to beat Clyde 3-0 in the Scottish Cup replay at Parkhead.
These days, Clyde would take a lot of credit from forcing the Hoops to a replay, but that wasn’t the way they looked at things in 1969.
Graham went on: “We used to go to Ibrox and Parkhead and play with no fear.
“I always believed their left-back should be more frightened of me than I was of him.
“A game I remember against Celtic was when I scored early on. I got the ball in the middle of the pitch, around the half-way line.
“I don’t know what I was doing there but I went on a run towards goal and fired it home.
“There’s a picture of the ball in the net without any sign of me. I was already heading for the touchline to celebrate!”
Graham spent nearly 10 years with the Bully Wee, having made the first team in 1962.
He said: “I had trials with Partick Thistle and Clyde when I left the army but, as a Rutherglen boy, my heart was at Shawfield.
“Early in my career, I broke my collar bone and then my arm, but they stood by me.”
The stand-out season for Graham was 196667, when Clyde finished third in the league.
He said: “I think one of the secrets of our success was that I could come into the dressing room every week and automatically hang my jacket on the No. 7 peg.
“You didn’t have to wait until the team was announced. We had the same side week in, week out.
“It was unfortunate that we were denied getting to play in Europe.
“Rangers finished above us, and it was ruled that two teams from the same city couldn’t play in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
“Instead, we got a summer tour to Rhodesia a year later and that was quite an experience.”
Graham, now 79, had a season with Clydebank before hanging up his boots in 1972.