John op success
One player who notched up the double is Willie Pettigrew.
The striker has been inducted into the hall of fame at both Motherwell and Dundee United.
Not bad for someone who could so easily have ended up on the football scrapheap after he was rejected by Hibs as a teenager.
Fortunately, that disappointment did not put him off and after a spell in junior football with East Kilbride Thistle he joined up at Fir Park in 1973.
Pettigrew’s pace and speed around the box brought him goals aplenty in the reserve team of his hometown club.
And it wasn’t long before the former schoolboy international was in Ian St John’s first team.
There he formed a productive partnership with Bobby Graham and soon the long-haired striker with the knack of bulging nets was making headlines.
Four goals in a 5-1 win over Ayr United in January 1974 had Well fans singing his name. The songs got even louder when he followed that up with a deadly double in a 3-2 victory against Celtic at Parkhead.
He banged in 20 goals that season to be the joint-highest scorer in the top flight with Dundee United’s Andy Gray.
He went three better the following season – a tally that was bettered only by Celtic’s Kenny Dalglish – and was Scotland’s top marksman in 1976-77 after scoring 21 times.
Such consistent finishing was bound to bring international recognition and in five games for Scotland he was on the winning side each time, scoring two goals – quite a record.
If he were playing today he would be Steve Clarke’s first pick but in the 1970s he had competition from the likes of Dalglish, Joe Jordan and Derek Johnstone.
In August 1979 he joined Dundee United for £100,000, the first six-figure signing by the club. United boss Jim McLean paid the big bucks because he wanted the goals he thought Pettigrew could bring.
When the new boy opened his account in a pre-season game against Spurs all looked well but it took him another five games to score again, from the penalty spot in a 2-2 draw with Celtic. After the game, boss McLean told him: ‘Thank f*** for that, I thought I’d bought a dud.’
Three months later, Pettigrew proved he was definitely no dud when his two goals helped deliver the Scottish League Cup in a 3-0 final replay win over Aberdeen at Dens Park – United’s first ever major trophy success.
And just for good measure he was part of the team that retained the trophy with another 3-0 victory, this time against neighbours Dundee at Dens Park.
Pettigrew, who also played for Hearts, Morton and Hamilton Accies, was simply a natural-born finisher.
He once said of his talent: “I’ve been scoring goals ever since I put on a pair of boots. I’ve tried to analyse it but never came up with a real answer. Call it part knack, part instinct. I just accept I can do it and am thankful.” To this day, the
John Souttar is recovering after undergoing successful surger y on hi s latest ruptured Achilles injury.
The Hearts and Scotland defender went under the knife in London last week.
Sources close to the player say that medics were satisfied with operation.
Souttar, 23, sustained the injury just 16 minutes into the February 29 Scottish Cup victory over Rangers.
Now he faces a long and lonely road back to firstteam football while self isolating as a result of the coronavirus outreak.
Souttar was sidelined for five months at the start of the Premiership campaign with an ankle injury that needed an operation.
He f irst ruptured his Achilles in January 2017.
Hearts manager Daniel Stendel ex pec t s the centre-half to be sidelined for around six months