IAN GETTING HIS 1977 MAN OF THE MATCH AWARD AT HAMPDEN PARK
Football’s spotlight is no longer trained on Ian Baillie nowadays and if truth be told he wouldn’t have it any other way but back in 1977 he had a prominent centre stage role in making the `good times never feel so good` for Kilbirnie Ladeside’s supporting legions.
When long in the tooth inhabitants of the many pubs and bars dotted around the Garnock Valley take to reminiscing about their fond memories of that year and in particular the Blasties’run to Hampden Park where they lifted the Scottish Junior Cup with a 3-1 victory over Rob Roy, you can put the housekeeping money on the names of Final goalscorers Bobby Davidson, Tam McGill and Ronnie Harvey , skipper Jim Inglis ,goalkeeper Jim Marner, and that most gifted puller of strings Ada McLaughlin receiving plenty of airings.
But not so Ian , for whom the passage of time has brought his performance that May afternoon to be aptly encapsulated by the description ”unsung hero” despite the fact he was the proud recipient of the Man of the Match award against the Rabs.
And who if any Ladeside diehards can forget his wonderful saving header in the 1-1 semi-final draw with Lesmahagow…Kilbirnie won the replay 1-0 … when Ian ,easily identifiable by his mass of ginger hair, appeared from nowhere among a trio of handily placed Gow players to avert what many onlookers felt was a near certain score(see pic below).
Ian’s shot at destiny began with his birth in 1950, in Darjeeling located in the Eastern Himalayas of India, where his father Bill worked as a Tea Plantation manager prior to returning to Scotland with his family in 1953 to set up home in Largs where he also bought a Licensed Grocer business located some 400 yards from Barrfields , home of Largs Thistle .
His football mad son was not one for studies and Ian’s dislike of St Peters High School in the Ayrshire town led to him moving to Kilwinning based St Michaels Secondary where he was significantly happier not least because he found himself playing for a school team comprising of four future Celtic signings (five if one includes Ian) in Lou Macari, Jim Clark (later of Irvine Meadow) John Murray who went on to play for Morton and Cambridge City and Aidy McKellar whose failure to make the grade at Celtic Park saw him take up a career as a Music Teacher.
Ian recounted, “ I took part in a lot of games as a left half but if truth be told I was mainly a reserve and not one of the regular starters in our St Michael’s team.
“ It was a different story on Saturday afternoons because myself and Crawford Boyd ( later of Queen of the South, Hearts and Irvine Meadow ) were fixtures in a decent Largs BB team run by Gordon Law, a future SJFA President and a club official at Largs Thistle for whom I signed on an amateur form when I turned 18 .”
Commanding centreback Boyd was another recruit for a Theesel side ,managed by Martin Stewart(ex-Dalry Thistle and Yoker Athletic), and whose ranks also included Willie McLellan a later Airdrie signing ) Billy Ritchie (St Johnstone) as well as another of the Perth club’s captures, John Fraser whom Ian believes may have continued his playing career in Denmark.
He recalled ,” Largs had a fairly good side around that time and I wasn’t getting much in the way of game time so I dropped back down into the amateur ranks with a team called T.N.P.G.(The Nuclear Power Group) and it was while playing for them that I was asked to represent the Ayrshire Amateurs Select as well as the North Ayrshire BB side against South Ayrshire.”
Around this time Ian’s performances were catching the eye of Senior scouts and he well remembers taking part in trial matches for Queens Park, St Johnstone, St Mirren (when Alex Ferguson was manager) and most notably Queen of the South where he looked a certainty to end up until then Palmerston gaffer Willie McLean abruptly changed his mind about signing him.
He takes up the story, “ I got over that disappointment by going back to Largs, this time as a signed professional , aged 20, and played a couple of seasons mainly as a left back or sweeper until a combination of illness and injury necessitating surgery and a long recuperation period kept me sidelined for a considerable length of time.
“I was close to calling it a day altogether after being out so long but gradually my enthusiasm for the game returned and I got myself fully fit again however Largs club officials offered resigning terms going into the 1974/75 season that were not to my liking so I turned them down and found myself placed on the open to transfer list and in demand by the trio of Beith , Kilbirnie and Irvine Meadow.“
Legendary Ladeside team boss Sconie Davidson won the race for his signature and Ian came into a Valefield dressing room newly populated by a quartet of signings from Greenock based Shamrock Juveniles , Jim Marner, George McFarlane, John Leslie and George Kane as well as the likes of Jim Inglis, John McCool and Jim Fleeting among others.
Theirs was a wonderful football playing blend so much so that Kilbirnie were to reach the penultimate stage of the Scottish Junior Cup only to lose out 3-2 against Rutherglen Glencairn but the weeks leading up to the Rugby Park thriller saw Ian’s qualities come under the microscope through trial outings with Celtic , firstly against East Fife followed by a Somerset Park clash against Ayr United made all the more memorable by circumstances leading to Ayr putting out almost their entire first team.
“If memory serves me right it was Peter Latchford’s very first game for Celtic and our line up also included Harry Hood and Jim Brogan.” mused Ian.
“I played the 90 minutes and was happy with my overall performance but nobody from Celtic seemed to agree and I was more or less told I wasn’t good enough for that level so I just turned my focus on preparing for the Glencairn semi-final but the night before the game I had a phone call from Sean Fallon asking if I would play the following Tuesday night for Celtic Reserves against Kilmarnock.
“ My answer was to say I didn’t want to be `just filling a jersey` however he assured me it was with a view to signing so I agreed to play but then a Dundee scout approached myself and John McCool as we boarded the bus after our semi-final defeat to ask if we would turn out for their Reserves on the Wednesday night .
“ I never did tell him about the Celtic outing and proceeded to take part in both games ,the Dens Park one as part of a team inclusive of Gordon Strachan ,but playing two games in 24 hours took its toll on me and I didn’t play as well as I might have for Dundee whose manager Davie White (ex-Rangers) wasn’t best pleased when he heard of my demanding schedule after I put pen to paper for Celtic on the Thursday night.”
At 25 years of age ,Ian did not share the “up and coming prospect” profile afforded to youthful Celtic team mates Tommy Burns, George McLuskey, Andy Ritchie , Roy Aitken, Jim Casey, Robert Hannah and Kenny Innes to name but a few, nevertheless he has fond memories of rubbing Reserve team shoulders alongside them as well as more established names such as Ronnie Glavin, Johannes Edvaldson , George Connelly and goalkeepers Ally Hunter and Dennis Connaghan during his one season (1975/76) spent on the Parkhead club’s books.
Upon his release, Ian was delighted to rejoin a Kilbirnie Ladeside side, still largely frequented by many of his former team mates, and whose stars were further aligned by the acquisitions of Joe McGoldrick (Clyde) ,bustling striker Harvey and the experienced McLaughlin , leading to the Ayrshire club winning Junior football’s top silverware prize for only the second time in their history.
IAN (third from left standing) IN KILBIRNIE’S CUP WINNING SQUAD
Not content with picking up the game’s most coveted gong, Ian was awarded what was to be his one and only Scotland Juniors cap just a matter of months down the line from the Hampden finale when he and Ladeside team mates Tam McGill and Jim Marner were picked to represent Scotland in a Dublin staged international against the Republic of Ireland which the home team won by a 2-1 scoreline .
Ian reflected, “A fair number of Ayrshire based players featured in that team not altogether surprisingly as Sconie was the Scotland manager and had Dunky Black (Irvine Meadow) as his trainer/coach.
“ Years later I found myself called up again when big John Hughes was in charge of the team and I took part in a trial match against Dunipace Juniors but unfortunately nothing ever came of it .”
His international recognition was one of the few highlights of the 1977/78 season for Ian not least because the break-up of Kilbirnie’s cup-winning side was followed by him being struck down by a debilitating groin injury that was to have far reaching consequences.
IAN THWARTS A CERTAIN GOAL FOR JOHN TAYLOR AND HIS GOW TEAM MATES
He remembered, “ Jim Marner emigrating to Australia was the catalyst for a lot of personnel changes and it didn’t help that I was having to get regular injections to play through the pain from my groin which meant I sat out a lot of games most notably when Pollok knocked us out of the Scottish with a 93rd minute goal.
“ It was a kick in the teeth and then some but nowhere near as hard to take as the one I received at the end of the season when the club sent out retention letters to each and every player offering resigning terms.
“A £125 offer across the board went to everyone except myself because my letter stated I was to get only £25 and I questioned whether this was a typo mistake but was told this was all I was getting by Sconie because I had been unavailable for so many big games like the Pollok defeat???
“ To say I was incensed would be putting it mildly so I declined the club’s offer and put the wheels in motion for an appeal to the SJFA asking for my release which dragged on for months on end.
“Eventually, my case went all the way to a tribunal hearing where Kilbirnie said they were prepared to pay the £125 to me but I wasn’t for accepting it on principle and the upshot was I never actually kicked a ball for the club throughout the entire 1978/79 season.”
Ian’s dispute was many years before the Bosman ruling came into effect meaning he was still contractually tied to Kilbirnie therefore he willingly accepted the same resigning terms as everyone else over the ensuing three seasons before in 1982 handing in a transfer request .
He revealed , “ Having experienced so many good times with Kilbirnie had spoiled me and I found myself totally disillusioned with the quality of players Sconie was bringing to the club and felt I needed a new challenge .
“I got my wish with a move to the |Jock Minford managed Irvine Meadow where there was added appeal from teaming up in defence alongside my old BB team mate Crawford Boyd but I was to last only 18 months after finding my commitment to football was interfering with my work and leaving no time whatsoever for my other hobbies of golf and badminton so I made the decision to call it a day not long after my 32nd birthday and I’ve stuck to my guns ever since.”
IAN TODAY UNRECOGNISABLE WITHOUT THOSE DISTINCTIVE FLAME HAIRED LOCKS
Asking if he had contemplated a move into coaching or management had Ian audibly appalled and insisting , “ During one of my spells out of the game , I did a bit of coaching and tried to help run the Largs Thistle team for a couple of months but I found it a real chore dealing with the constant phone calls from players , committee men and other clubs so it’s definitely not for me.
” Occasionally, and I mean very occasionally I’ll take in games involving Largs or Kilbirnie but I was never a great watcher and I’d much prefer to be out on the golf course.”
Ian who rates strikers Jim Peebles (Kilbirnie) Joe Ball (Largs) and Gus McLeod (Pollok) among the toughest opponents he faced during his career owns up to having one or two regrets over his playing days.
He said ,”Looking back now there’s one or two things I could have handled better such as signing Senior for any club other than Celtic where you really needed to be full time to stand any chance of breaking into the first team .
“ And opting for a move to Irvine Meadow was not one of my better decisions because given it all to do again, I would stay with Kilbirnie .”
FIXTURES FOR SATURDAY 29th JULY( Kick Offs 2 PM unless stated): P.D.M HUWS GRAY Premier Division. Beith v Rob Roy,Gartcairn v Largs Thistle, Pollok v Auchinleck Talbot, Clydebank v Benburb, Darvel v Glenafton, Arthurlie v Cumnock, Troon v Irvine Meadow, St Cadocs v Hurlford Utd. P.D.M HUWS GRAY PDM Buildbase First Division. Shotts Bon Accord v Kilbirnie Ladeside, Cambuslang Rangers v Kilwinning Rangers, Drumchapel Utd v Neilston ,Maybole v Rutherglen Glencairn, Petershill v St Rochs , Renfrew v Johnstone Burgh , Blantyre Vics v Thorniewood Utd, Whitletts Vics v Ashfield. PDM HUWS GRAY Second Division. Ardrossan Winton Rovers v Larkhall Thistle, Greenock Cumbernauld Utd v Glasgow Perthshire, Kilsyth Rangers v Bonnyton Thistle, Craigmark v Forth Wanderers , St Anthonys v Yoker Athletic, Wishaw v Glasgow University , Maryhill v Caledonian Locomotives, Vale of Clyde v Muirkirk .PDM HUWS GRAYThird Division. Finnart v Girvan, Lesmahagow v Vale of Leven, Greenock v Bellshill Athletic, Irvine Vics v Glasgow Utd, West Park Utd v Dalry Thistle Lanark Utd v Ardeer Thistle, Threave Rovers v Kilsyth Athletic. Port Glasgow v Vale of Clyde, Port Glasgow v Kello Rovers. PDM HUWS GRAYFourth Division. Knightswood v St Peters, Saltcoats Vics v Glenvale, Royal Albert v Campbeltown Pupils , Thorn Athletic v Rossvale, BSC Glasgow v Lugar Boswell, Carluke Rovers v Eglinton, Easterhouse FC v Giffnock Newmains Utd v East Kilbride Thistle.
Regards
Jim O’Donnell
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