{"id":9568,"date":"2016-08-13T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9568"},"modified":"2016-08-13T08:49:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-13T07:49:03","slug":"tom-campbell-more-wee-stories-to-cheer-you-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9568","title":{"rendered":"Tom Campbell: More Wee Stories To Cheer You Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared on the Ottawa CSC website, where Tom Campbell<\/strong>\u00a0now resides. He’s kindly sent it to us as well, as he’s grateful for the feedback on his other tales, and thanks everyone for taking the time to read them. By the way, give Ottawa CSC a follow on twitter. They seem like a good bunch of guys.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the years I’ve heard many things about football\u00a0that have made me smile, even laugh out loud, made me ponder and reflect. I’d like to share a few with you in this article.<\/p>\n

\n

Do you remember the 6-2 game? \u00a0A beautiful sunny day at Celtic Park, a full house, a tense atmosphere \u2026 did Martin O’Neill really mean it when he claimed Rangers were the benchmark? \u00a0Well, we would find out soon enough. \u00a0Sutton scored in the first minute, Petrov got the second a few minutes later, and Lambert fired in the third soon after \u2026 Celtic Park in delirium: Celtic three goals up inside the first ten minutes, Bobby Petta running Ricksen ragged. \u00a0Finally, after those\u00a0ten minutes, most of us were able to sit down for the first time since the kick-off. \u00a0The season-ticket holder beside me could hardly speak so overcome he was, but he wanted to say something. \u00a0He patted me on the shoulder, struggled to find the words, and eventually spoke: \u00a0“Can I ask a favour? \u00a0Don’t wake me up!”<\/p>\n

\n

***<\/p>\n

\n

John Greig, “Rangers’ Greatest-Ever Player”, was never a particular favourite of Celtic supporters, and nobody loathed him more than a certain ticket collector at Glasgow’s Queen Street railway station. \u00a0Back in the 1970s quite a few Rangers lived in or near Edinburgh and travelled back and forth daily: Ralph Brand, Willie Johnstone, Jimmy Millar and, of course, Greig. \u00a0The collector liked – or, at least, tolerated –\u00a0the others but never John Greig. \u00a0One day the Rangers’ players arrived at the platform just as the train to Edinburgh was ready to leave, and Greig could not find his ticket:<\/p>\n

\n

“I have it here somewhere; I’ll show it on the train, Jimmy.”<\/p>\n

\n

“Ticket, please.”<\/p>\n

\n

“I’ll miss the train. \u00a0Come on, you know me; you see me every day.”<\/p>\n

\n

“Ticket, please.”<\/p>\n

\n

“Jimmy, you know me; you know my face. \u00a0Come on, my face is my ticket\u2026”<\/p>\n

\n

“Do you want me to punch your face, then?”<\/p>\n

\n

***<\/p>\n

\n

I attended the 1984 Scottish Cup final between Celtic and Aberdeen, when Aberdeen won in extra time against a ten-man Celtic side. \u00a0Roy Aitken got ordered off in about 30 minutes and it put Celtic in a considerable disadvantage: \u00a0having to play the rest of the final a man short, having to play against the current Scottish champions, having to fight back after losing an early offside goal to a side that had recently won a European trophy. \u00a0Things looked desperate as we watched big Roy troop across the Hampden pitch towards the dressing room. \u00a0The supporter beside me broke the silence: \u00a0“Does that mean big Roy’ll miss the replay?”<\/p>\n

\n

***<\/p>\n

\n

Later, in that same\u00a0final, Paul McStay equalised. to force extra time. \u00a0We were standing in the Celtic end amid scenes of jubilation, prolonged joy. \u00a0The man beside me, who knew that I wrote about Celtic, was the first to recover some composure. \u00a0He\u00a0surveyed the joyful scenes, the singing and the dancing all around us and said, ” Tom, if those bastards could read, you’d be rich!”<\/p>\n

\n

***<\/p>\n

\n

I’ve mentioned my cousin Tommy before but he was working in the docks down in Govan when the 1970 World Cup was held in Mexico. \u00a0Brazil were due to face Italy in the final and Tommy was desperate to see it on television but his shift finished just after the kick-off. \u00a0So, he was doomed to watch the game in a pub \u00a0\u2026 in Govan, of all places. \u00a0It was a Rangers’ hostelry: \u00a0Union Jacks, Red Hands of Ulster, pictures of Rangers’ heroes, the lot \u2026 And, of course, packed with Huns of every size and shape. \u00a0Tommy got a beer and found a seat well away from the TV screen and watched the game quietly.<\/p>\n

\n

Give the other patrons credit;\u00a0to a man\u00a0they were cheering\u00a0\u00a0for Brazil \u2026 but the favourites were struggling a bit, unable to break through the Italian defence for a leading goal until the second half. \u00a0One of their forwards set off on a mazy run, beat half a dozen defenders, and ended up\u00a0tapping it past the Italian goalkeeper. \u00a0What a goal! \u00a0The pub erupted: beer was spilt, tables overturned, chairs toppled over; toasts were proposed and drunk, hands clapped, praise uttered \u2026 You get the picture!<\/p>\n

\n

Meanwhile, the camera was\u00a0following the jubilant\u00a0scorer as he raced behind the goal, chased by his colleagues\u2026 he skipped around the photographers, ran along the touchline in the direction of the Brazilian bench, hands raised in\u00a0triumph \u2026 in the Govan pub several thousand miles away the fans cheered him on,\u00a0clapped in admiration \u2026 until the scorer slid to his knees, lowered his head, and blessed himself. \u00a0Silence in the pub, tables and chairs quietly\u00a0re-arranged\u2026 Not quite silence as Tommy raised his voice: “Quite right. \u00a0I thought he was offside as well.”<\/p>\n

\n

***<\/p>\n

\n

To end on a more serious note. \u00a0I researched a book about the World Club Championship by going to Buenos Aires, among other things to interview some of the Racing players. \u00a0One highlight was meeting Umberto Maschio, the Racing playmaker and a genuine legend in Argentina. \u00a0I’ll be honest here; I really did not know how great a player he was at the time, until I looked him up later in the reference books. \u00a0A grave, dignified man, he had been capped for both Argentina and Italy, and had played for both in World Cups, but here we were talking about 1967..<\/p>\n

\n

We spoke through an interpreter, and I asked him which Celtic players had impressed him: \u00a0“The captain, McNeill \u2026 he scored\u00a0 a brave header in that goalmouth at Hampden \u2026 Yimmy Yohnstone, superbo, magnifico, the best \u2026 and Murdock (he had trouble pronouncing the name), he was a player. \u00a0I considered it an honour he was delegated to mark me: \u00a0I would go left, he was there in front of me; I would go right, and he was there again; I would go deep but could not get free. \u00a0We played chess, Murdock and me, chess with muscles. \u00a0Muscles, but always clean, a strong player but a gentleman\u2026’<\/p>\n

\n

I had to stop him and break the news that Bobby Murdoch had died only a month earlier. \u00a0Umberto lowered his head: \u00a0“I am saddened to hear that. \u00a0If you are ever to speak to the family, would you tell them that I remember him with affection\u2026 and that I will remember him in my prayers.”<\/p>\n

\n

At the end of the session I felt I had to thank him, and asked the interpreter to convey my thoughts: \u00a0“I was a pleasure and an honour for me to speak to such a distinguished player. \u00a0Thank you.”<\/p>\n

\n

His reply was graciousness itself: \u00a0“No, it is I who have to thank you. \u00a0When you are old, it is good to be remembered for\u00a0the things we did, Bobby and I together, when we were young.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared on the Ottawa CSC website, where Tom Campbell\u00a0now resides. He’s kindly sent it to us as well, as he’s grateful for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/maxresdefault-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2uk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9570,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9568\/revisions\/9570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}