SELLING THE JERSEYS... ON AND OFF THE PARK
But at least Pars fans are doing it for a good reason
IT turns out that Efe Ambrose wasn’t the only person selling the jerseys at Dunfermline on Saturday. A couple of hours before a fateful Championship play-off with Queen’s Park, Marv Stewart was doing a brisk trade in what used to be a quiet corner of East End Park.
It all started when she shifted a handful of Pars’ shirts to help the club after administration hit in 2013. She’s never looked back. These days, those entering Marv’s Emporium and Tearoom can purchase the colours of clubs from all around the globe. Many have been donated from locals but most are handed in by those who fall in love with this treasure trove on a whim.
Painstakingly categorised, there are enough match programmes to fill Carnegie Library. The shelves are groaning with homemade ties and teddy bears in Dunfermline’s famous black and white. There are hand-knitted scarves, pennants, key rings, signed balls and framed pictures whoever you look.
The nervous pre-match chatter on Saturday was interspersed with the sound of china cups clinking onto saucers as tea was served by an army of volunteers and home baking devoured. You could lose yourself for a month in this haven which sits inside the main stand. But just a few seconds were all that’s required to appreciate something special.
‘Marv’s doing so well that we’re going to get her to run the team next season…’ quipped one wag.
The Emporium was borne from hard times. It will sustain this famous club now they have returned there.
‘When we went into administration we were thinking of things we could do to help out,’ Marv explained. ‘A friend gave me four shirts and we decided to try and get something for them. That’s what we did. And it just started from there. We eventually needed somewhere to store all the jerseys and the club offered us this room which used to be the supporters club.
‘The donations were initially from Pars fans but you get them from all over the place now as more and more visiting fans have popped in. We’d some in from Sunderland earlier.’
Having helped the club survive, the aim now is to see it prosper, despite Saturday’s drop to League One.
‘Since December we’ve been giving the money to the youth academy,’ added Marv. ‘Everyone feels we have to start bringing through more of our own players.’
She can remember a time when that was the way it was.
‘My dad’s family were all from Lesmahagow and were all Rangers fans,’ said the 79-year-old. ‘He moved to Blairhall (in Fife) for the pits. He just took to this club straight away. I used to greet if he wasn’t taking me to the games. I can’t actually remember who my first game was against, but it was 1949-50 when I was six years old.’
She bore witness to the club’s golden era, bookended by the Scottish Cup triumphs of 1961 and 1968.
‘I liked the 1961 game the best,’ she recalled of the 2-0 win over Celtic that followed a replay. ‘I was 18 and went through in a supporters’ bus. There was no motorway to Glasgow then so we’d to go through all the villages. I can still see them all out in the streets waving us back. The team paraded the cup on the balcony of the town hall. I’ll never forget that.’
That era also saw Dunfermline establish themselves as a European force. Under Jock Stein, they reached the quarter-finals of the 1961-62 Cup Winners’ Cup, exiting at the hands of Hungarians Ujpest Dozsa. In the Fairs Cup the following season, they overturned a 1-0 deficit against Everton, then faced Valencia. Six-two down from the first leg in Spain, they won 4-0 at East End only to lose a play-off in Portugal by a goal.
The scalps of Stuttgart, Olympiakos and West Brom were also claimed in the decade, while George Farm’s side were narrowly pipped by Slovan Bratislava in the semis of the 1968-69 Cup Winners’ Cup.
Asked for her personal favourite, Marv replied without hesitation: ‘Everton. Alex Young had said they were coming up to show us country bumpkins how to play fitba’. It was brilliant.
‘The other one that sticks out was Valencia. We’d Alex Edwards playing. I’ve got the photo of Jock Stein from that night on my Facebook page.’
This nostalgia lark can be lucrative. A Norrie McCathie testimonial shirt made the Emporium £650 and a programme from Hibs’ first European tie (1955 against Rot-Weiss Essen) £500. ‘It’s just a pity Diego Maradona didn’t play here,’ added another browser.
‘We could have done with the £7.1million.’
Still, the estimated £70,000 raised to date isn’t too shabby. With the stadium a long way short of capacity for a game of huge importance on Saturday, every penny is welcome.
A detour was taken on the short walk to the Press Box through Legends Bar and you wondered how it had come to this.
Administration was the consequence of the Pars overstretching themselves in the early part of this century.
But they emerged from that nightmare in late 2013. The only way should have been up, yet on Saturday a side capable of finishing third under Jimmy Calderwood and reaching three cup finals were scrapping to stay out of the third tier.
The walls in the bar provided further evidence of how good things used to be, with images of Charlie Dickson, Alex Edwards, Harry Melrose, John Watson, Istvan Kozma and Bert Paton. You can only imagine what one Alex Ferguson makes of the current plight. Huddled in a corner, the mood among the four members of the Kincardine Supporters Club was pensive.
‘The board have done a great job keeping the club afloat,’ said Kenny McLachlan. ‘But some of their managerial appointments have been questionable to say the least.’ Glenn Mason added: ‘We’ve not been in the Premiership since 2011-12. We’ve got a good ground, a big support and real history. But results count. It hurts when so many smaller clubs have been up there in that time.’
Duncan Forsyth responded: ‘The difference is that they are far better run than Dunfermline.’ Mark Falconer offered a more optimistic take: ‘With the German investment, we’ve got a structure now — better training facilities and a new CEO. ‘The club’s on a sound footing. We just need to get it right on the park.’ It proved wishful thinking. Another toothless display by John Hughes’ side looked doomed to failure even before Ambrose saw red for a professional foul on Simon Murray. With ten men hanging on for extra-time, Murray’s 89th-minute goal ensured the Pars went down.
A thoroughly miserable season had the ending it deserved. The mood at the final whistle was mutinous and dark. Even the Emporium provided no sanctuary. Still, though, it offers hope.
‘The manager had five months to sort out what wasn’t right with Peter Grant but he’s not done that,’ said Marv. ‘Even when we’ve played well, he’s changed the team.
‘There’s no continuity. This season has been horrendous, one of the most rotten times I’ve had watching my team. I’m absolutely gutted. But we’ll be back here next season. ‘It’s just what supporters do. The memories of the good times become more important when things look bleak.’