It was 22nd April 2019.

In a car driving past the Estadio Nacional on my way to attend an ExCo meeting of AEFCA (Alliance of European Coaches Associations) the driver, commissioned by the Portuguese Football Association, pointed to the stadium and told me it was where one of the most memorable games of football had taken place. He asked if I knew of the Inter Milan v Celtic European Cup Final in May 1967. I was proud to answer in the affirmative.

This match he told me resonates with the football supporters of Portugal, not primarily because of the quality of the play but because of the occasion and the fantastic Celtic support. Its impact is similar to the Real Madrid v Eintracht Frankfurt Final in the city of Glasgow seven years earlier which is revered for the wonderful standard of football and the marvellous ten goals scored. Alfredo Di Stefano’s run from just over the half way line to score Real’s 7th is still talked about to this day and, thanks to tv footage, not only by the older generation.

Our journey continued, punctuated by football memories of Lisbon such as when Ally McCoist suffered an horrendous leg-break in a Scotland international on 23 April, 1993, against Portugal who had ex-Manchester United Assistant, Carlos Queiroz as Manager. Ally received a heavy doze of morphine from the late Professor Stewart Hillis, the SFA doctor, and since there was the likelihood of him not making the charter flight home, Andy Roxburgh asked be to remain with him were he required to stay in hospital. In spite of the severe injury the pain killing injections did their job and Ally remained his customary jovial self while being wheeled into the Emergency Admissions area.

The porter pushing the trolly was obviously a bit star struck and tried to put the patient at ease by saying, “You’ll be all right in this hospital, Mr McCoist. We have English speaking doctors here.” Typically sharp, Ally’s reply was, “That’s great. We’ve got none of them in Scotland!”

While I was recounting my recollections of Lisbon, including my visit with Dundee FC, 12th man as usual, for the European Cup win against Sporting in 1963, I received a call on my mobile from

Will of SKY Sports News. It was a major shock. To be advised of the passing of Billy McNeill while passing the scene of his greatest triumph was amazingly co-incidental.
Although not altogether unexpected in view of his decade of health troubles, I was a somewhat shattered and unusually speechless.

Memories came flooding back……….

Lanarkshire towns Bellshill, where the McNeills lived, and Hamilton are only a couple of miles apart separated by the famous River Clyde. Billy, and I were early friendly rivals while he played for his school, Our Lady’s High School, Motherwell, and I played against him for Hamilton Academy. Many of these U18 matches, on both sides of the river, were played on black ash pitches, and they were rough, at times brutal. We had the reputation of being ‘competitive’ which is euphemism for ‘dirty ———s’. We both played for the ‘Rest of Scotland’ Schoolboys against ‘Glasgow’ who had a certain Alex Ferguson of Govan High School in direct opposition to our brilliant centre half. From this ‘trial’ match the Scottish team was chosen with the one year younger Alex Ferguson having to wait to be included the following year.

In the photograph of the 1957 team which beat England Schoolboys at Celtic Park, Billy and I are positioned diagonally opposite.

Others who had senior careers include Fred Renucci (Partick Thistle), Phil Lynch, John Ward & Ian Lochead (Celtic), Billy Little (Aberdeen), Dave Hilley (Third Lanark & Newcastle United), Hugh Brown (Kilmarnock), Brian McIlroy (Rangers & Kilmarnock), Sandy Turpie (Queens Park) and the referee standing beside Billy is Bobby Davidson who was one Scotland’s top FIFA officials for years.

While still at school, where Billy was very bright obtaining a fistful of ‘Highers’, we both were invited to train at Celtic Park where youth coach, Jock Stein, had us working on the large grass area behind the goals. Billy got on the Number 64 bus in Motherwell and I joined at Hamilton Cross. We did this together for some months while we shared stories about all the teams who wanted to sign us, mine a bit imagined, but Billy’s real! I had no preference, local if possible, as I was going to train as a PE teacher, but for Billy it had to be Celtic, Celtic only! He had ample University ‘attestation of fitness’ but he worked in the insurance industry for a couple of years before he became a full-time footballer. I think the number of games he played for the one great Club, confirmed he made the correct decision.

That pathway to the first team was to sign an ‘S’, Schoolboy Form, be coached at the professional club in evenings and on school holidays, then sign a ‘Provisional’ form and be placed to a Junior Club. Junior football in Scotland is an adult semi-pro grade of non-league English standard. I signed a ‘Provisional’ form for Rangers who sent me to Coltness United, then Billy went to the same grade with Blantyre Victoria. It is worth mentioning in the context of being the first British Club to win the European Cup that 9 of the starting 11 Celtic players came through the Junior football ranks.

Thereafter our paths seldom crossed because Billy, even as a part-time player, quickly became a Celtic first team regular, while I was a limping

Rangers’ reserve player. But we kept in touch and on good terms. While I was a student, along with other precocious PE lads, I went for an audition to be a Scottish Country dancer in the very popular BBC TV show, ‘The White Heather Club’. Needless to say I wasn’t selected but I still became an avid viewer of the weekly show whose lead female dancer was a beautiful girl who was soon to become Billy’s wife. Elizabeth Callaghan, or Liz, whom I got to know years later, was not only very attractive but a charming lady whose devotion to her husband and five children, Susan, Libby, Carol, Paula and Martyn, has been unerringly exemplary.

When we met on numerous occasions Billy couldn’t resist ‘digging me up’ with quips like, “Are you still masterminding these defeats for the reserve team?” His sense of humour never diminished over the years but it was his integrity and leadership qualities which made him the man he was. I witnessed this at first hand when playing for Dundee at Celtic Park, the 1961/2 season we, Dundee, not Celtic nor Rangers, became Scottish Champions.

Making his first team debut for Celtic was a young lad from Saltcoats who had been farmed out to Ardeer Recreation Juniors. Our manager, Bob Shankly, brother of Bill, who in his own quiet manner, knew everything, told me my direct opponent was a new guy who “Tossed up with a sparrow for legs, and the sparrow won!” He then asked me if I could count and asked what’s one from eleven. In my obsequious manner when I gave the correct answer I was told to have them reduced to ten as soon as possible.

Because my instruction was explicit I was never far from Bobby Lennox but he was quick, brave and elusive making my task well nigh impossible. What was extremely noticeable and audible was the fact that his Captain was caring for him with a series of encouraging remarks and instructions. “Well done Bobby,” “That’s great!” “Take him on. I told you he was slow!” “Brilliant pass” etc.
When eventually I managed to connect with Bobby it was with an ‘accidental’ elbow to his nose. The first Celtic player to run to him before he received treatment was big Billy, whilst giving me a look and a finger pointing reprimand. And I wonder who instructed Bobby Murdoch to clatter me minutes later!? There were not the same ‘health and hygiene’ rules in those days, and no substitutes, so the Lennox jersey played the rest of the game covered in blood as Bobby is quick to remind me whenever we meet. At the end of the match it was Captain McNeill who, in typical thoughtful fashion, complimented and escorted the young debutant off the pitch. It is little wonder that Bobby always says, “Billy McNeill was my hero and best friend.”
All the Celtic players, young and old, loved and respected Billy McNeill MBE.

The entire Lisbon Lions squad obviously, but later youngsters such as Kenny Dalglish, Roy Aitken, Paul McStay, Peter Grant and Charlie Nicholas (in tears speaking of his death on tv), shared the same opinion. Although Billy played for only one team between 1958 and 1975, amassing a record 832 appearances and winning 23 major trophies, he managed 3 Scottish Clubs, Clyde, Aberdeen and Celtic twice, and two in England, Manchester City and Aston Villa. It did not surprise me one little bit when I was working at Fulham with Chris Coleman as manager to hear Chris say, “At City when Billy walked into the room I was awe-struck as were the other lads. He had genuine charisma. We all thought the world of him and would hang on his every word.”

Billy’s first managerial appointment was with part-time Clyde, then in the Scottish Second Division. Such was his standing in the game he managed to get Clyde a kit deal with Umbro who, at that time, operated only in the higher echelons. When he left a small, high quality Clyde squad to go to manage Aberdeen I’ll remain eternally indebted to him because I understand he spoke for me to be his successor. The players I inherited absolutely loved their illustrious manager and men like Clyde legend Brian Ahern couldn’t, and still can’t, speak highly enough of him.

I had further reason to be grateful to Manager McNeill as, six months after he departed, our Club was in danger of going into the red. President William Dunn and Chairman Tom Clark apologised to me when they said that they never go into debt and that I’d have to sell at least one player. That’s when the new Aberdeen incumbent came to our aid. He knew the Clyde squad intimately and we eventually completed a £25,000 deal for midfield player, Steve Archibald. So, on New Year’s Day, 1978, Steve took the train through the snow from Glasgow to sign for Aberdeen.

When Billy converted Archibald into a great striker his successor, Alex Ferguson, was able to sell him to a Tottenham for £800,000 and later he went to Barcelona for in excess of £1m. Sell-on clauses were not in vogue at that time and Billy never failed to tease me – politely of course – for having no such agreement in place.

To go to the Dons meant that Billy and I shared the same two managerial appointments. Again, while in the north east and living in Stonehaven, Billy made his customary fine impression within and outwith the Football Club.

Leading all time goalscorer, Joe Harper, puts Billy McNeill up there with all the managers he has experienced. While other managers had the capacity to alienate players Billy retained his dignity without it weakening his impact. No one in the changing rom would ever mistake kindness for softness when Cesar was around. Billy was given that moniker when a group of Celtic players went to the cinema in 1960 to watch a movie called Ocean’s Eleven in which Cesar Romero played a leading role.

When the same Billy McNeill triumphantly held the European Cup aloft in Lisbon he could easily have been mistaken for the famous Roman leader, Julius Caesar, who did for his country what Cesar did for Celtic and Scotland.