From Queen's Park to King of England: Fifty amazing years in football for Fergie
By
Ian Ladyman for the Daily Mail
Updated:
He has one of the most celebrated and envied CVs in football.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s accumulation of trophies and medals in Scotland and England - totalling 29 so far - will perhaps never be bettered.
And, incredibly, it all began 50 years ago this Saturday.
High and mighty: Ferguson, in his Rangers blue, gets the better of Billy McNeill, captain of arch-rivals Celtic, in 1967
Stranraer’s Stair Park was the venue for 16-year-old Ferguson’s playing debut for Queen’s Park in the Scottish Division Two on November 15, 1958.
Scotland’s Sunday Mail reflected the next day that the young forward - playing at inside right - was a good prospect ‘but a wee bit slow’.
But the teenage Ferguson managed to score with a low shot as the players of Scotland’s oldest football club lost 2-1 then made a mad dash for the train home to Glasgow.
‘It was a little different in those days,’ recalled the goalkeeper that day, Bill ‘Stonewall’ Pinkerton.
Dear Sir, you are particularly requested to take part in a match against Stranraer: Ferguson made his debut for Queen's Park 50 years ago
‘For difficult away trips like that we used to go by train. And after the game we had to run straight out of the stadium, across the tracks and on to the train again - probably not quite the glamour that Alec dreamed about when he was growing up.’
Ferguson fails to mention in his autobiography that he scored that day; instead recalling another, rather more peculiar incident.
‘The Stranraer left back was a little tank called McKnight', recalled Ferguson. ‘And when we were both on the ground after a tackle the b*****d bit me.
‘At half-time our coach roasted me ror not being combative enough. I told him I’d been bitten and he roared: “Well bite him back, then!” ’
Records of the game reveal it was more memorable for the dismissal of Queen’s Park striker Charlie Church for fighting than it was for Ferguson’s debut.
The visiting No 9 was only the second Queen’s player to be sent off since the war.
Suffice to say, things nwere a little different back then.
Talking at his home in the charming village of Milton of Campsie near Glasgow the day after Ferguson’s Manchester United side had drawn with Celtic at Parkhead, Pinkerton said: ‘It’s funny to see Alec now. Probably the most famous figure ever to play for our club.
‘He wasn’t with us that long but I certainly remember him. Down to earth. No pretensions about him.
‘But he was different on the field. He was all elbows. A couple of challenges with him and you would walk away with bruised ribs.
‘He was a committed player and quite fleet-footed, with quite good control. He was a modest player, in the nicest possible way.
Queen's Park keeper Bill Pinkerton shows a picture of a young Ferguson in the team picture
‘From what I recall, he wasn’t the hardest worker when he first trained with us. We didn’t have floodlights in those days, so training on Tuesday and Thursday nights in winter would not involve ball work at all. It would just be four laps of the 400 metre track at our Hampden Park ground and then 10 lots of sprints.
‘I think it was a bit of a shock to him and he didn’t really take to it. But as he got older he started to show more interest in that side of it and a new trainer, Billy Williamson, took him under his wing a bit.’
Ferguson’s introduction to life as a footballer was certainly lacking glamour.
Queen’s Park were - and still are - an amateur club and Ferguson was paid about seven shillings and sixpence (37.5p) match expenses for his first appearance.
Having been informed by letter that he had been selected (it began: ‘Dear Sir, You are particularly requested to take part in a match against Stanraer . . .’)
Ferguson met his new team-mates for lunch in Reed’s Tea Room near Glasgow’s Central Station.
‘That was what we always did for an away game,’ recalled Pinkerton.
‘From there we’d be taken to the game. By bus if the roads were good enough and by train if they were not.
‘We’d be dropped off at Reed’s afterwards and it was up to us if we stayed for tea. I don’t think Alec did.
‘We also had golf trips to Gleneagles and Turnberry and a New Year’s Eve Dinner Dance at the Grosvenor Hotel.
‘But I don’t think he came and I don’t blame him. He was a lot younger than most of us!’
Sir Alex Ferguson and Mark McGhee on arrival in Aberdeen on the ferry St Clair after a famous win for the Scottish club against Real Madrid in the 1983 European Cup Winners Cup final
Ferguson was to play eight times - scoring three goals - in a dreadful season for Queen’s Park that saw them finish next to bottom in the lowest league in Scottish football.
In his History of Queen’s Park FC, author Bob Crampsey bemoans that: ‘Only the shortcomings of bottom club Montrose saved Queen’s from being the worst club in the Second Division and therefore in Britain. Few players in that side were worth bothering about.’
Nevertheless, Ferguson’s education would appear to have been rapid.
With the help of senior players such as the late Willie ‘Junior’ Omand, Ferguson improved to the extent that he played 23 times - scoring 11 goals - in his second and final season before he moved to St Johnstone.
With that progression came some familiar confidence. Former Queen’s Park inside left Robin Wood said: ‘He was a hardy lad who didn’t hold back. He used to get into bother in training.
‘There was a real fighter inside him and you could hear that Govan accent coming a mile away. You would just think: “Oh no, here comes Alec!” ’
Goalkeeper Pinkerton added with a smile: ‘There were occasions he’d get a roasting from the trainer and he wouldn’t take kindly to it at all!
'He would give as good as he got. Oh yes, he certainly had a few run-ins when he was with us.
‘But it was a hard time to be in that squad, especially for a youngster. We were struggling as other teams in Scotland got better and better.
'There was not a good ambience at Queen’s Park at the time.’
At the time of his debut, Ferguson understandably showed few signs of the leadership qualities that were to emerge later in his career.
Tommy Malcolm, a curator at Hampden’s excellent Scottish Football Museum, played against Ferguson in the Sixties when the current United manager was suffering in the reserves with his beloved Rangers.
From Stranraer to Moscow in 50 years: Sir Alex Ferguson raises the European Cup after his Manchester United side memorably beat Chelsea to win the European Cup in May
Malcolm said: ‘Yes, I noticed the Ferguson elbows, too. But I also noticed the way that he talked every other player through that game.
‘It was an education to listen to - and I was playing on the other team.
Looking back, maybe it should have been obvious where he was heading.’
Sadly some members of the team who coaxed 16-year-old Ferguson through his difficult early games have now passed away.
But others - including Charlie Church - were due at Hampden on Wednesday night at a commemorative dinner.
It is understood that Ferguson himself sent his apologies but it appears he is never far from people’s thoughts in that particular part of Glasgow.
‘Of course, we’re all rather proud to have played with him,’ smiled Pinkerton, whose three daughters have represented Scotland at the high jump and volleyball.
‘I emailed him when he received his knighthood to say congratulations. I watch United games on TV as some of my family support the club.
‘I watch with my wife Maureen .... mind you, she prefers Cristiano Ronaldo.’