Mickey Hall . . . ‘King Of The Mal’

Following on from Rowantree’s fantastic feat in winning the Scottish Sunday Cup a couple weeks ago — becoming the fourth Dundee side to do so — it’s perhaps time to tell the tale of GJ’s, who, 26 years ago, became the first team from the city to win the coveted trophy.

It was in 1980, and GJ’s, who played in the Dundee Sunday Welfare AFA at the time, had “home” advantage as the final was played at Tannadice.

The opposition were Edinburgh cracks Liberton Cropley, who were the holders, and were on an unbeaten run of 85 games.

I was at the game and had previous experience of Cropley.

With my own Sunday team Bank Street Athletic, I had come up against them twice, going down 4-1 away from home at the quarter-final stage that particular season.

The Cropley team, along with playing hard, liked to party hard and they put on a good night for us in Edinburgh after the game.

My abiding memory of that particular evening was them bursting into song every half-hour or so with a rendition of “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.”

And, as they ran out on to the pitch at Tannadice for that Scottish Cup final, every one of the team had a yellow ribbon tied to their wrists.

I remember thinking it wasn’t ideal preparation for such an important game, and also that it would just wind up the GJ’s boys.

Not that they needed any cajoling.

The Dundee side, full of very talented footballers, got stuck into their Edinburgh opponents from the first whistle and contained an early Liberton bombardment.

The game settled down, GJ’s started to dictate and the all-important only goal of the game came midway through the second half from Barry Cuthill.

I spoke to Barry Cuthill and Arthur McIntosh in the week after the game and they both said how wound up they were when they saw Liberton apparently not taking the game as seriously as them.

Goalkeeper Jim Gollan, a star on the day, remembers the occasion well, and it was Jim who supplied the photo at the foot of this column.

“We had a mixture of skill, pace and determination throughout the team,” said Jim.

“The defence made up of Arthur McIntosh at right-back, Derek Smith and Lyall Mitchell in the centre of defence, and Brian Banks at left-back — and we were up to anything Liberton could throw at us.

“In midfield, Stewart Gibson and Gordon Pirie could both spread the ball over the park to open up any defence and Barry Cuthill’s ball-winning skills and tenacity made a formidable engine room.

“Up front, the prolific goalscoring and pace of both ‘Mickey’ Hall and Bobby Sanderson, added to Danny Markie’s ‘tanner ba’ skills, caused a lot of bother to any defence.

“Even our substitutes were top players.

“Frank McPaul could play in defence or midfield and John Mitchell played up front and was a regular goalscorer.

“That was our only trophy that season, although, in the eight years we were together, we won every domestic trophy at least once.

“We are all still very close and, in fact, have a reunion nearly every Saturday in the Maltman, which is what the pub is now called.

“There you will always find many of the players, including the legendary ‘King Of Them All’ (or should that be ‘King Of The Mal’), Mickey Hall, who will only be too pleased to talk you through some of his many goals.

“It’s only poignant to mention Danny Markie, who passed away recently. Danny was a great player and a great lad, and he’ll be sorely missed.”

n The other Dundee teams which have won the Scottish Sunday Cup are Dolphin and Duncraig, of the Morning and Welfare associations respectively.

DID HARP SPEND A YEAR AS HIBS?

Reader PETE REILLY is looking for some info on his grandfather.

“My father, who passed away last year at the age of 100, always maintained that his father, Terence Reilly, played for a team called Hibernians,” he writes.

“He was born in 1865 and his address in the 1891 census was Wilkie’s Lane, Dundee.

“I think went to America around 1900.

“I believe that Harp were, for one year (1894), known as Hibernians.

“I would certainly appreciate any help I can get.”