EX-THIRD Lanark players have been reminiscing about their time at the club, whilst gathering to celebrate a superfan's 724 piece collection of memorabilia.

 

Players, such as Alan McKay and Mike Jackson, joined crowds of family, including the son of Third player Jimmy Mason, Alec, and friends to delve into the incredible 30 book collect.

McKay spoke of his glory days at the club, where he played from 1963 to its close in 1967.

He said: "I came to the club at 14 as an amateur .

"When I started on the first team I just felt so proud, I just felt 10ft tall.

"It was a family, other clubs I played for the atmosphere was more serious but not as enjoyable as Third"

The ex-team mates had many stories to tell of their fun-filled days at Third.

McKay said: "We had a big communal bath for 12 and it fell apart so the manager got tiles and asked if anybody was a tiler so it was fixed but the rule was last out the bath had to pull the plug out.

"But someone didn't take it out and the bath was filthy, the water looked horrendous.

"So when the manager asked why he hadn't pulled it out, he said he couldn't find it and it turned out the boys had tiled over it."

This will be the final time fans will have been able to see the collection as Bob Laird, who began his work almost 60 years ago at the age of 5, is due to retire this year.

It is an event which ex-left midfield player, McKay, did not want to miss.

He said: "It's brilliant, we have got a complete history and Bob is a true Third Lanark historian."

And Laird remained true to Third Lanark even through its demise.

He said: "I never thought it was going to happen, they were the first club since the war to close up and people kept saying it was going to happen but when it did, I could not support anyone else, just Scotland."

Despite the club being declared bankrupt more than 40 years ago, the heartbreak of that fateful day is still felt today.

McKay said: "We never knew anything about it until we read it in the paper, just like everyone else.

"It was tragic, utterly tragic.

"You never forget your first club."

A message which certainly rings true for both the fans and the past players.

Jackson said: "I was brought up in Govanhill and was a fan since the 1930s or 40s and then it was gone.

"It was shocking .

"I realised it was happening when instead of getting new balls for each game we had to paint over the old ones.

"I told the chairman we needed turpentine in the bath not soap - we could not get it off."

However, the men still regularly meet up as part of the committee and, alongside club director Pat McGeady, hope they will see Third Lanark take to the pitch as a professional team.

A dream which could soon become reality as life-long fan McGeady and his team have brought life back to Cathkin Park since 2007, with three amateur men's clubs playing in the Greater Glasgow Amateur League and an amateur woman's team set to kick off this summer.

McGeady said: "Third Lanark's been dead for 48 years but the passion has always lived on."