FOR 14 years, John Hansen followed his son Alan around the world to
watch the classy defender win a stack of medals with Liverpool FC.
John, 70, is rightly proud of his son's achievements with club and
country. But yesterday he clutched his own medal and relived his own
moment of glory as a player in the 1952 Scottish Junior Cup final.
He was centre half in the Camelon side who lost 1-0 to Kilbirnie
Ladeside, and will be a guest of the Falkirk club when they meet
Whitburn in Sunday's final at Fir Park.
May 17, 1952, is a day he will never forget. ''It was a fairy-tale for
me then. There was a crowd of 70,000 in 1952 and I was used to playing
in front of 200 every game. Hundreds of buses and a special train took a
massive support from Falkirk. But once the game started, I never even
knew the crowd was there.
''Still, they'll all be keyed up for Sunday and my advice is to go out
and enjoy themselves. They've done the hard part by getting there. As
Alan says -- who ever remembers semi-final losers?''
The 1952 team were each paid #20 -- and a steak pie. Falkirk District
Council called off a civic reception after the team lost. So, Myles, the
local butchers, supplied the pies as a consolation gift.
John, whose other son, John Jr, played for Partick Thistle and
Scotland, added: ''Although my final was 43 years ago, I remember it
like yesterday. Jackie Dunbar, who went on to play with Aberdeen, scored
the goal, and Donnie McQueen -- whose son, Gordon, went on to play for
Manchester United and Scotland -- was Kilbirnie's goalkeeper. We just
couldn't get the ball past him.''
John met his old rival again at Hampden 25 years later, and they were
on the same side as they shouted on their sons in a Scotland game.
1 Now John is looking forward to Sunday's big game at Motherwell,
linking up with his old team-mates, and cheering on Camelon.
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