It's that time of year again folks! Another year in the club’s history has come and gone as have thirty one competitive matches which have yielded twenty-two victories, two draws and seven defeats. Well six really, with one abandoned near the end before we could recover it but we won't discuss that! The club was starting its third full season in the Greater Glasgow League Division 3 and after finishes of sixth and fifth previously we knew that only promotion would be a success on this occasion. As it turned out there were too many teams in Division 3 at the start of the season and the decision was taken to split the league into two sections with the winners of each automatically promoted and the two runners up playing off for a chance to play third bottom in Division 2 in the proper play-off. Confusing! It certainly was at the time. We were drawn in a league with Glasgow Uni, Rolls Royce EK, Muirend, Calderglen, Rannoch ‘A’, Alba and Busby and each team had the dubious pleasure of playing each other three times.
The summer had brought about new faces and as always an air of optimism. Billy Hepburn became the sixth manager in the clubs 19 year history in the summer and the Fernhill man brought a stack of experience in the game with him. He was a shrewd customer and had been watching the team in their last few games of a disappointing season previous so he knew he had work to do. The team needed freshening up and he brought in striker Greg Johnstone, defender Chris Carr from Third Lanark and Mick Devaney. They, allied to Liam McGeachy, Calum Granger and Tam Simpson who had only joined up late last season, gave the team fresh impetus.
The first three games in the League Cup section got the new manager off to a great start in his first week as Moorpark, Busby and Calderglen were all soundly beaten with 17 goals scored. Significantly Greg Johnstone notched 9 of these and this was the sign of things to come. The manager also managed to recruit his son Chris to the squad and he made an instant impact scoring on his debut at Busby. This carried us into the first league game, a home one against Rolls Royce EK who had just been relegated. Despite being behind at half-time and struggling, the team rallied to get a vital 3-1 win and get our first points on the board. The final game in August was the decisive game in the League Cup section and as if to show we had a long way yet to go, the team collapsed 7-2 at Barlia to Division 1 EK United who would go on to contest their own title race.
September saw only two league games but again the team ground out important wins over Calderglen and Rannoch to keep the good start going. October was another good month for us. A thrashing of Busby in the league was followed by a very tough Scottish Cup tie at home to Balmore of the Caledonian League. Despite being 3-1 down the team recovered to draw 3-3 and force a replay in Stonehouse which we lost 3-2 in extra-time despite looking likely to win in normal time. The West Of Scotland Cup was next up and finally at the eleventh time of trying to win a solitary game in the West or Scottish Cup we did it in style recording a thumping 13-1 win over a beleagured looking Ardeer Rovers side. Two more very tight league wins over Rolls Royce and Rannoch were achieved making it 6 straight league wins as the momentum grew.
In November the prize for finally winning a game in the West was a home tie against the trophy holders Bannockburn at Barlia. The team started well and should have went in front but some top class finishing from the visitors plus a red card for an awful tackle by Scott Robertson meant the men from Stirlingshire progressed 3-0. All focus was now on the title race and before Christmas, victories over Muirend and bottom club Alba, albeit very unconvincingly, gave us our best league start in years. All the while though, Glasgow Uni had also made a great start and already both teams started pulling away from the chasing pack as the year ended.
The bad weather meant that our next game in late January was away to Glasgow Uni in the biggest game of the season so far. The team dug in well on a heavy pitch and Greg Johnstone’s late goal to give us a 2-1 win was in hindsight, the most significant one of the many he scored all season. This was followed up by a comfortable 6-0 home win over Muirend to give us ten straight league wins on the bounce.
February was arguably our worst month of the season and with the bad weather came some bad form as we failed to win either of our two games. First up the 100% league record went up in smoke as we were held to a goalless draw on an awful pitch at Calderglen. We then lost 2-1 in the Challenge Cup away at Garnock Valley in extra-time. Kevin McCann’s straight red card late on brought him a 4 game ban and this came at a time when injuries, suspensions and a wee dip in confidence was affecting us.
March seen a bit of a recovery though and two new faces arrived in Joe Kerr and Craig Thomas to bolster a creaking squad. An indoor win at Toryglen against Rolls Royce was followed up by a tough 3-1 home win over Rannoch at Barlia. This brought us up to another crunch home game with Glasgow Uni who were racking up the points by getting the games played. A victory would have given us one hand on the title but we were comprehensively beaten 4-1 by the students and Chris Kerr who had returned to the club that day looked to have suffered a horrendous injury in the closing minutes forcing the game to finish prematurely. Thankfully the injury wasn’t as bad as first feared and he even recovered sufficiently to watch the next game at Busby where a tight 2-1 win over a very experienced team packed with ex-pros got us back on track.
We were now smack bang in the run-in and another new face in Steph Docherty arrived to provide some more ammunition up front. Two comfortable wins came over Calderglen and Alba Thistle although Tam Simpson got sent off in the Alba game and we were to be robbed of his influence when his ban came through. This took us up to a very tricky trip to Muirend on a Wednesday night. They had already done us a major favour in beating Glasgow Uni away the week after the Uni trounced us at Barlia to ease the pressure on us but we knew this would be a very difficult game. The game was tied at 1-1 at half-time and the prospect of losing points three days before we were due to play the Uni for the last time would have been disastrous. As it was we pounded the Muirend goal the entire second half but it wasn’t until the 80th minute that Kevin McCann’s diving header put us in front before a late penalty made sure of it. Would it be McCann’s latest and most dramatic goal of the season?
The Muirend win took us to the brink of the title, two points ahead of the Uni with two games in hand as the teams met on May 1. One point was all that was needed to secure the title and promotion but again the Uni came up trumps with a 3-0 win to send us into our second last game against Alba on the Wednesday needing two points from our last two games to win it. It could have been a nervy night but the team went 3 up in ten minutes and the rest was a formality as a 9-1 hammering was accomplished. The champagne could finally be opened and our season long aim of promotion was achieved. Winning Division 3A though meant that although promotion was secured, we had to play the winner of Division 3B in the Division 3 play-off final, namely Craigneuk, a talented young side from Wishaw whom we had earlier played in a pre-season game.
The game was played at Northolm Park, at the home of Giffnock North on a Friday night of good weather. We started well and raced into a two goal lead from Hepburn and Johnstone and were cruising but the third goal never came. Craigneuk kept going and got two goals back and nearly got a third. As the clock ticked into injury time though, Kevin McCann collected the ball just inside the Craigneuk half. He seemed to have one more run in his tiring legs. As he advanced the forward tracking him clipped him and there were cries for him to go down for a free-kick but he somehow stumbled on, the defence kept backing off. Why not as their big Polish keeper Semerau was saving everything we threw at him but then McCann swung his left foot 30 yards out and the rest is now stored in a gold-nugget section of Windlaw history. Those who were there will always remember it . It was definitely liquid gold, it must have been but where did it land? Did anybody see it amid the chaos and the ecstacy? It may forever remain one of the great unanswered questions of our time, a hunt that will go on and on puzzling those who have thought long and hard about it. I’m babbling on though and my holidays await, a pint is required and the Giffnock North Social Club is about to be paid a visit. As the beer is ordered I look at the bar steward with a quizical look. I turn and I say to him "Why is this in a plastic glass mate?" He turns and replies "We’re a bit short of glass ones mate, have you ever heard of a guy called Joe Kerr!"
