‘Nipper’ broke his cup jinx with a return trip to Spain
Eilish McColgan’s stirring run to win 10,000 metres gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham revived memories of her mum, Liz, doing the same 36 years earlier.
That success was in front of a full house at Meadowbank Stadium when Edinburgh was the host city.
Alan Lawrence was more accustomed to playing football in the arena when the crowd tended to be two men and a dog – or two dogs if they each had one!
His first senior club of many was Meadowbank Thistle, and he recalls the stadium – purposebuilt for the 1970 Commonwealth Games – did the players no favours.
“With its running track, just one stand and very few spectators, it was hardly built for football,” Alan recalls. “We felt isolated, and you could never say a referee’s decision was influenced by the home crowd!
“That changed before the 1986 Games, when more temporary stands were built, and it felt more like a football stadium.”
The lack of atmosphere didn’t prevent Alan from having one of the biggest nights of his career, shortly after signing for Thistle in 1984.
“We got through to the League Cup quarterfinal against St Johnstone, and I headed the winner about 60 seconds after we’d gone down to 10 men when Paul Leetion got sent off,” he says.
“That set us up for a semi-final against Rangers, and that was something else for a kid who only a few months previously had been playing juvenile.
“We lost the first leg 4-0 at Ibrox, and that really was game over. But in the return leg – played at Tynecastle as Meadowbank Stadium wasn’t big enough – we gave a good account of ourselves, and were 1-0 up until Ally McCoist equalised with five minutes left.”
Admitted to the Scottish League in 1974 as Ferranti Thistle, the club had to immediately change their name as it was deemed unsuitable for commercial reasons, and it was re-named again to Livingston when the club was relocated to the West Lothian town in 1995.
By then, Alan had been on his travels to Dundee, Airdrie and Hearts, before another stint with the Diamonds and spells at Partick Thistle, Stenhousemuir and Cowdenbeath.
And everywhere he went, he was known as “Nipper”.
“That went back to my schooldays when there was a character, Nipper Lawrence in one of the boys’ comics,” he reveals.
“One of my pals started calling me that, it stuck and right through my playing career, I was known as Nipper. Only my mum and dad and wife, Heather, called me Alan!”
Three Scottish Cup Final appearances were the highlights of his time in the top flight, but all ended in disappointment.
“In 1992 with Airdrie, we got to Hampden to face Rangers,” Alan continues. “They were in the midst of their nine-in-a-row run and, for all manager Alex MacDonald had moulded us into a good unit with a lot of experienced pros, they were always going to be too good for us.
“Three years later, we were back there, and this time the opposition was the other half of the Old Firm, but Pierre van Hooijdonk headed home what proved to be the game’s only goal.
“I then signed for Hearts, and at the end of my first season, it was another Cup Final. However, it was third time unlucky for me and Rangers beat us 5-1.”
That wasn’t the end of Alan’s cup final woes. After hanging up his senior boots, he joined the coaching staff at Bathgate Thistle, but they lost the 2006 Junior Cup Final to Auchinleck Talbot.
When Bathgate reached another Final two years later, Alan was on holiday on the Costa del Sol. But he wasn’t going to miss it.
“I flew back from Benalmadena on the day of the game, was part of our win over Cumnock, then flew back to Spain the following morning,” Alan recalls with a laugh.
“And you know what? I didn’t even get a winner’s medal as there weren’t enough to go round! But that didn’t bother me. Just to break my jinx was enough.”
Alan turns 60 later this month, and currently works at the Mitsubishi factory in Livingston.