THE people behind a campaign to erect a statue of Lisbon Lion Bobby Lennox in his hometown of Saltcoats hope to finalise their plans in the near future.

The Celtic legend has lived in the Ayrshire town all his life and a group of locals last year decided to raise funds to have a permanent tribute to its greatest son.

Caroline McKenna, a Statue for Bobby committee member, said: "We are really happy with the progress that's been made so far. The support has been fantastic and we want to thank everyone that's helped us.

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"We still need funds to get the statue completed. The statue is built in three stages, we've paid for the first stage, but we need around £18,000 to finish the other two."

Bobbys wife Kathryn, who is also from Saltcoats, revealed the family have been astonished by the campaign.

She said: "I was very impressed. I didn't realise how much work was involved in making a bronze statue.

"It's done in phases and you can't really hurry it up. It takes time to do it's quite a feat.

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"What does it mean to the family? Everyone is just over odds about it. We think it's great. Bobby's a bit shy about the whole thing but the family think it's a lovely idea."

Lennox was voted into Celtic's greatest ever team in 2002 and is the club's all-time second top goalscorer, and won more medals than any other player in Celtic history.

He scored 273 goals in 571 games.

If you want to support the campaign then please donate directly into the campaigns account Sort code 832702 Account no. 00712303.