“It was good to read about Charlie and his boys,” said Kirkie, who played alongside me with Bank Street Athletic.
“John Weir was another very good player from Fintry who played for several senior clubs such as Brechin, Montrose, Forfar and St Johnstone.
“Having played either with or against these two, Charlie had more skill, while John was a workhorse.”
Kirkie also fondly remembered his time as a member of the St Bruno’s Roughcuts team, who played on a Sunday in Dundee.
“I remember my first game for the Roughcuts and I was handed Willie Lawson’s strip (Billy was featured in last week’s Downfield photo).
“Did his transfer to Sheffield Wednesday from Brechin City not help to pay for the Glebe Park floodlights?
“The Roughcuts team also boasted the Taylor brothers Bobby and Iain, the Piggot brothers Billy and Michael, Dave ‘The Flying Pig’ Tosney, Jimmy ‘Hard Tackler’ Gardner, Danny Ross, Danny Hannan, Grant McLean and many others.”
Kirkie also highlighted his time with Tayport Amateurs when they reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup in 1986.
He continued, “It was a great achievement at the time to be the first Tayside side to reach that stage of the competition since NCR in the 1960s.
“We beat fellow-Dundee teams Lawside FP and Riverside Athletic on the way — Lawside after two replays. We were eventually beaten 3-1 by Barr & Stroud with goals from McGraw, Munro and McSheffrey. I also remember Ian Durrant’s brother playing for B&S.
“Coincidentally, I am now very friendly with Danny McSheffrey.”
CHARLIE ADAM also responded to his January 4 story and apologised for not mentioning other great players who came from Fintry and went on to senior clubs.
However, that particular story was about Fintry laddies signing for Rangers, but I’m more than happy to mention the other guys from the Dundee housing scheme to step up.
Charlie revealed, “John Cord signed for Dundee, as did Jimmy Leonard.
“Stephen Glass played for Aberdeen, Newcastle, Watford and Hibs, and is now at Dunfermline, then there’s Garry Kenneth, who is currently at Dundee United.
“My good friend John Reilly was with Dundee United in their glory years and he also played for Motherwell.
“Others are Alec Rice and Jackie Thomson, who both played for Raith Rovers.
“And not forgetting John Weir, who, I think, played for all four Angus senior clubs — as I did.
“It will be interesting to see if there are any more replies on this subject.”
LETHAM LADS WHO HAVE TURNED SENIOR
During a chinwag with KEN DRUMMOND, el supremo of all things regarding Perth’s Letham FC, my colleague JAMES MASSON and Ken started counting the players who went senior after a spell at Letham.
They came up with Jake Findlay (Aston Villa, Swindon), Billy Bennett (Dunfermline, Forfar), Bill McManus, Pat Joyce, Billy Beatson, Sandy McRorie, Derek Brown, Ross Jenkins (St Johnstone), Grant Jenkins (Dunfermline, St Johnstone), Kenny Marshall, Ally Campbell (Dundee United), John Binnie (Hibs, Brechin), Iain Nicolson (Montrose), Derek Rylance (Arbroath) and Stan Lewry (Shrewsbury).
Ken reckons many more went senior and perhaps BwB readers can recall any others who graced top level after a spell with Letham.
In recalling the Jenkins brothers, Ken also added, "Their mum was also a great fund-raiser for the club."
Letham FC are still going strong.
They are presently putting out 17 teams, they organise a Soccer School and, in conjunction with Perth and Kinross Leisure, hold coaching for primary one and two pupils.
SCOTTISH REFEREES HEAD FOR THE SUN
A couple of Scottish football referees contacted me in the past couple of weeks, just to chat about this and that — as they often do.
During the course of the conversations, it emerged that, on Sunday, most Grade One officials in Scotland are heading for the Marbella area of Spain for a warm-weather break.
It also emerged that the annual whistlers’ get-together at St Andrews will not go ahead this year — but new initiatives are in the pipeline.
One of the officials was at pains to tell me that the trip abroad wouldn’t cost any more than the convention at the Home Of Golf, and that, indeed, savings would be made.
Another man-in-the-middle, though — not Grade One — bemoaned, “We don’t seem to be getting anything like that this season.
“At least, the St Andrews weekend gave you the chance to mingle with the top referees, and there were always top-name guests invited, too.”
DOWNFIELD GOALIE WAS BILLY MANN
The “Unknown” goalkeeper in last week’s Downfield Juniors photo was identifield as BILLY MANN.
Some who put their name to their responses were IAN LINDSAY, my former team-mate JIMMY ABERDEIN and Longforgan’s JIM HARRIS.
MARTIN SMALL (Hilltown, Dundee) also came up with the name, as did Monifieth’s JOE BANNON and MIKE GALLACHER.
Mike also commented, “Did we really walk the streets of Dundee unmolested with those hairstyles?”
