As a ten year old my dad used to take me and my brother to Easter Road one week and Tynecastle the next andin that first season of watching football i saw Third Lanark play at Easter Road and i think the score was 5-1 to Hibs, that was in 1964 and must have been the season Third Lanark went down, and i can still remember the red tops and white shorts that they wore.
I was "born" a Third Lanark fan. I can remember walking with my dad to games at Cathkin Park from our "Single End" in Calder Street, Polmadie. We moved from Calder Street to Houslewood when I was about six, but continued to make the trip to Cathkin to every home game until we emigrated to Australia in 1965. By that time I had 3 younger brothers so it was a group of 5 of us who never missed a home game. We went to most of the away games too - sometimes in the supporters bus and sometimes in my dads old Ford van.
Strangely, Hibbee, one of my fondest memories was the last game of the 1961/62 season when we played Hibs and needed to score six goals to get to 100 league goals in a season. We won 6-1 - I'm not sure how many, if any, other teams have achieved that. What a side we had then! It's hard to believe that 6 years later Third Lanark ceased to exist.
Not long after coming to Australia, the HiHi folded which left me disenfranchised. I did not follow another team for years, though I did play myself for the next 15 years. About 10 years ago, my brother-in-law, a Hibbee, talked me into going to a Marconi game and together we followed the stallions all over Australia until the National League folded last year. I'm not sure what we'll do now, the new teram Sydney FC don't hold much attraction for us - perhaps we'll just watch Marconi in the state league.
