Testimonials

Great that we are having a testimonial for Keith. The first testimonial I can remember being at was for Charlie Aitken. It was against Rangers in 1967. Dave Mackay, Billy Stevenson and Ian StJohn played for us. I was at another but I can't remember who it was for. It was v Liverpool and Bruce Grobbelaar did handsprings in his penalty area when the ball was at the other end. Does anyone else have memories of testimonials?

PS Still in the huff about Saturday - but we played some good expansive football - both goalies had some great saves.

Joe Wark getting absolutely ripped apart v West Brom and Laurie Cunningham scoring 5 or 6 playing directly against Joe. Wark would have regularly played for the Scotland team if he like Tam Forsyth played for Rangers.
Also seeing a very talented Ian Durrant at 16 in another testimonial.

Also on Saturday thought all of new signings showed some promise. Ripley a couple of excellent saves. Fletcher turning the Utd defence several times but needs McDonald closer in support. Chalmers out of position so difficult to assess. Moult though brief appearance an excellent header on target at far post.

My abiding memory of the legendary Joe Wark's first testimonial game was the infamous Gregor Stevens opening the scoring for West Brom with an own goal and then heading the equaliser for us, all within the first 10 minutes. The rest was simply scintillating as Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham, Tony Brown, Willie Johnston & Co. put on a dynamic 8-1 exhibition as Allan Mackin confirmed he wasn't really cut out to be a centre half in the big league. ha ha.
Very appropriate that the club kindly erased the memory of that result by giving Joe a 2nd testimonial match, a 1-1 draw with Rangers, I believe.

The Liverpool game was the Club's Centenary match - not a testimonial.

Abiding memory from the Joe Wark game was the pre-match sprint between Willie Pettigrew and the West Brom duo of Laurie Cunningham and Cyril Regis. Willie was the fastest thing on two legs in the Scottish game at that time and when the gun went he was barely out of the starting position and both had finished (poetic licence I know, but they were like ********* off a shovel in comparison to poor Willie).

Set the tone for the rest of the evening unfortunately.

Remember thinking that night that it was cruel for poor joe to take such a beating in his own testimonial game kept thinking they would ease off a bit but they never did