In Scottish football’s hall of shame, Bill Hiddleston has an alcove all to himself.

Very few today will recognise his name and all the infamy attached to it.

Except for those Third Lanark fans who can neither forget nor forgive the man who systematically crushed the life out of their club.

A former director, Hiddleston had been sacked from the board but re-emerged in 1961 as majority shareholder.

He took up his post as chairman and resigning director Robert Martin said: ‘God help them – and God save them.’

Divine intervention was, though, not forthcoming as the name of Third Lanark swiftly moved from the back pages to the front pages.

Hiddleston shaped the club to his autocratic will. Players were sold, managers, including Bill Shankley’s brother Bob and Old Firm heroes Willie Young and Bobby Evans, quit, money went missing, nefarious backhand deals took place and there were constant rumours that Hiddleston was trying to asset strip the club in order to sell the stadium site to property dealers.

By the end of season 1965, Thirds were in Scottish football’s hinterland, languishing in the old second division.

Crowds dwindled as Cathkin Park slowly became a rotting carcass under Hiddleston’s rule.

Just under 300 fans watched their team earn a 3-3 draw against Queen of the South.

Weeks later the gates of Cathkin Park were shut for the last time as Thirds were liquidated, the first Senior club in the history of the Scottish game to suffer such a bleak fate.

A government board of enquiry launched weeks after the club went bust concluded that Hiddleston was guilty of rampant fraud.

But he cheated the long reach of justice…later that same year he died from a heart attack in a Blackpool hotel.

Lifelong fan and actor Simon Weir speaks for many when he recalls how the demise of the Hi Hi impacted on the local community.

“These people were robbed of their club in the most successful year Scottish football had ever known.

“And the league was robbed of a great club, a club that was a founding member of the Scottish game,” he says.

“It was theft basically, embezzlement and bad accounting.

“You could compare it with Rangers today in one sense, but the big difference between Third Lanark and Rangers was Third Lanark went straight to bust.

“Everything was sold to builders who then discovered that they couldn’t build on the ground because there is an old local authority caveat, that says the land must be used for recreational purposes. So then you are left with a graveyard, a football graveyard.”

Hiddleston’s name still sends a chill through Pat McGeady, the club’s unofficial archivist.

“He was a total conman," he said. "The board of enquiry laid the blame for the demise of Third Lanark firmly at his door. The thing is fans were so furious with him at the time they even refused to believe he was dead. They felt cheated that they never got their day in court with him in the dock.”