THIRD Lanark FC had a race against time to get a new stand ready in time for the start of the 1962 season.
The photograph, taken on July 23, shows players training at Cathkin Park next to the stand. Club officials were confident that it would be ready for the opening game on August 11 - a League Cup first-leg match against St Mirren.
Behind the scenes, Third Lanark, in common with several other clubs, had problems with players who had declined to re-sign. Reports spoke of “pay rebels”; among the other teams affected were Rangers. Three of the Third Lanark “rebels”trained alongside their colleagues. But, said the Evening Times, “after their bath they had no opportunity for a quiet chat with their manager, for Mr George Young left before training stopped to attend a conference with the builders who are erecting the new stand, and who are clearly going to have a frantic rush to have it ready for the new season.”
As the game neared, however, it was realised that the stand would not be ready in time, and the game was switched to neutral Hampden. St Mirren ran out 2-1 winners in that first leg. (That August 11 was a day of high scores: Motherwell put nine past Falkirk before half-time, Dumbarton beat Albion Rovers 5-3, and Rangers, Kilmarnock and East Stirling all scored four goals).
Read more: Herald Diary
Five years later, however, Third Lanark, Scotland’s oldest professional club, was no more. Lord Fraser, in the Court of Session, ordered it to be wound up as its liabilities exceeded its liquid assets. A Glasgow Herald leader regretted that the club had for years been bedevilled by boardroom battles and by mismanagement, which had both “militated against the creation of an efficient let alone outstandingly successful team.”
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