The Best Days

Of Our Lives

It was 30 years ago today (to paraphrase and misquote ‘the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper) when Cowden fans of my generation (a clever reference to ‘the Who’ flung in for astute readers?) were enjoying the birth of an all too short lived renaissance in Cowden’s fortunes. Those were indeed the best days of our lives for Cowden fans of my era and in today’s media/money dominated game it seems a remote possibility that a little club like Cowden could ever again repeat its achievements of that time. The early 1970’s was a last, but now sadly lost, golden age when a team of local part-timers getting paid peanuts was able to rise to compete in a League which included the European Cup runners-up. For nostalgia’s sake and the benefit of those unfortunate individuals who weren’t around to witness it, here’s some of the key impressions of those golden years.

Support - In these days of micro-crowds, it’s difficult to appreciate that Cowden not that long ago averaged 4 figure crowds for 4 consecutive seasons. In 1969/70, when we won promotion our average home crowd was over 2,000. In the season we were relegated from the 1st Division, we averaged around 3,300 at Central Park. The rearrangement of the Rangers’ game due to the Ibrox disaster led to an all-ticket 15,000 crowd falling to just over 3,000 thus otherwise our average would have been well over 4,000. Dunfermline’s average crowd then when both clubs were effectively competing on a level playing field (finishing just 2 places apart in the League) was around 6,700, just over twice Cowden’s average. Not very impressive really for a town which enjoyed a 5:1 population advantage over Cowdenbeath - this ably demonstrates just where the real West Fife soccer hotbed has always been. Sometimes there were more people in Central Park than the population of Cowdenbeath.

Supporters - When I was at primary school, 90% of the class supported Rangers. When Celtic won the European Cup, a small number of Celtic fans emerged, a process which was replicated a year later when Dunfermline won the Scottish Cup. Indeed, some of these fans were that strange breed of chameleons whose are deeply loyal to whichever side is enjoying success at any given time - these are the guys who were going to Pittodrie when Fergie was boss, populated the terraces at East End when Leishman was hyping things up, and are now to be found extolling the virtues of the mighty Glasgow Rangers. Glory hunters who are drawn to success like moths to a flame because it makes their own drab existence seem important as if the sheen of success will rub off on them. OK, Cowden too had a number of these no-marks as fans in the early 1970’s but what was great to see was a community which had 90% of its population proud to call themselves Cowden fans. From Halbeath to Cardenden, Kelty and Ballingry fans flocked to follow ‘the Miners’. At school, everyone’s projects involved scrapbooks filled with match reports from ‘the Post’, ‘the Pink’, ‘the Green’ and ‘the tiser’ on Cowdenbeath FC. Sports bags with Cowdenbeath FC logos were the favoured schoolbag and at games periods blue and white striped Cowden strips were the most popular strip being sported. The main topic of conversation in playground, pub and High Street was Cowden and it was great.

Kings of Fife - For years Cowden had been Fife’s poor relations but 1970/71 saw us as Numero Uno without dispute. Dunfermline were beaten 4 times, Raith Rovers twice and East Fife once in the 7 derby matches. The Fife Cup came home for the first time since the 1930’s. Games with Dunfermline were the stuff dreams are made off. After enduring a decade of their success and ever-inflating Townie egos, their arrogance was stuffed back down their throats by a side which outfought and outplayed Dunfermline’s not-so-superstars time and again. Easy, Easy was the chant from the fans of the Kings of Fife.

Glamrock Era - Cowden’s days in the sun neatly corresponded with the glam rock era. David Bowie’s ‘Starman’, Mott the Hoople’s ‘All the Young Dudes’ and Slade’s ‘Mama We’re All Crazee Now’ began to filter over the Central Park tannoy system. Off the field, Cowden stars had all the gear. Davy Ross and Billy Laing adopted the blonde George Best look. On the terraces, Cowden’s dudes were increasingly fashion conscious (albeit giving the more camp fashions of the time a wide berth - these were more popular with the bohemian Eastendites who found this more to their taste). Sharps, Addisons, DE Shoes, the Store and the Regency in Cowdenbeath High Street now were shifting Crombie coats, Harrington jackets, Doc Marten boots, Levi jackets, sta-press trousers, white jeans, Ben Sherman shirts and all the other fashion necessities required by the Cowdenbeath glitterati.

Violence - Up to this time, violence at the fitba in Scotland had generally involved either drunkenness or sectarianism. The early 1970’s though produced a generation which decided in the absence of a War, random violence could be a fun alternative. At Central Park, this was generally kept in check by the simple expedient of having a couple of polis wandering around. Indeed the violence mainly remained of a psychological nature with much posturing, threatening and goading on street corners whilst actual skirmishes were often ‘handbags at 10 paces’ affairs. Fraserburgh and Townie supporters though will doubtless recall their bus windaes being put in. Gangs were formed and spray painted graffiti came into vogue. It was the height of daring to go into the neighbouring town or village and spray paint your logo somewhere prominent for all to admire for years to come. Gangs grew up in which you were a member at least vicariously as long as you hailed from that town. Thus every teenager in Cowdenbeath who wasn’t shouted in for his bath by his mum or got to stay out on the dark winter evenings past 8 o’clock became at least nominally a member of the YCB (Young Cowdenbeath Boys) a la the PLO - this though later fell out of fashion to be replaced with YMC (Young Mental Cowden) by the local spin doctors. Contemporary gangs included the YLM (Young Lochgelly Mentals), Y-HOBBS (Young Hill of Beath Boys), the AV Toi (from Abbey View) and the Tiny Sally (from Ballingry - don’t ask me why). Must see films for this generation were a ‘Clockwork Orange’ and ‘Enter the Dragon’ whilst tomes such as ‘Skinhead’ and ‘Suedehead’ were avidly read by the local literary elite.

Club Badge - After winning promotion, Cowden decided for the first time to produce a club badge. Dave Mason designed this in 1970. It had the club name diagonally across the middle of a quartered shield. One quarter shows the then club mascot "Brian the Lion" who was a pioneer of mascotry in Scotland. Unfortunately, he soon had to give up the post when he was done by the DSS and his giro was stopped. Another quarter shows two thistles and this relates to the fact that the badge was originally designed for Partick Thistle who rejected the design. Cowden got a 50% discount for leaving some of the existing design unchanged. The third quarter has 2 crosses and basically was a reference to our Townie neighbours that when we played them we’d bury them and that time and again Cowden would be a graveyard for their promotion hopes. The 4th quarter has a football, which was designed to give the players a clear idea of what such an object looked like - unfortunately in the years since 1970 this has often been not wholly effective despite other attempts at reinforcing the message.

Programmes - 1970 brought the advent of glossy, printed programmes to Central Park under the editorship of the aforementioned Dave Mason. This introduced us to the concept of ‘the Manager’s Column’ and just how many different excuses could be utilised for defeats. There was also the half-time scoreboard which meant those privileged punters who bought a programme and understood the alphabet could decode half-time scores from around the country. This though was not a foolproof system as the lads with the numbers and ladder who hung the scores up were sometimes alphabetically challenged themselves or some tall git would stand in front obscuring the home scores from games A, E and J. Inclement weather could also produce dangers, for example on a windy day a board advising all and sundry that Hearts had scored 2 goals v Airdrie might take flight and give some poor bystander more direct and intimate advice of this brace of goals. A favourite section then as now in the programme was the player portrait which provided fascinating insights to all us wannabes at to what to eat and drink and what car the aspiring football star should drive. Forget all that pasta and banana nonsense, Cowden players tastes then ran to steak and chips, egg beans and chips, steak and mushrooms, steak, egg and chips and no doubt Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam. These guys drove Singer Vogues, Vauxhall Vivas and Victors, Hillman Imps and Billy Laing had a Singer Chamois. Musical tastes were pretty bland with Marmalade, Andy Williams and the Moody Blues all favoured. Jim Taylor though was a Stones’ man whose favourite meal was asparagus! Tommy Millar liked scoffing a plate of tripe and onions whilst Billy Laing’s pet hate was nagging women. The last programme of 1970/71 saw Charlie Gronbach sign off with message ‘We’re no awa ti bide awa’. However, around 30 years on I suspect Charlie was erring on the side of optimism there.

Local Players - One of the great things back in the early 70’s is that most of the squad either came from Cowdenbeath or nearby. Thus, Andy Kinnell’s brother used to work in the Store, Denis Jack’s brother was the man who came to fix your TV, and Jim McArthur’s sister was in my class at school as was Watty Glancy’s son. The board members had shops that took up half the High Street. Friends worked beside Ronnie Sharp at Seafield or Billy Bostock at the Paper Mill in Inverkeithing. There were also a host of other Cowdenbeath boys who played around that time for Cowden including Raymie Allan, George Yorkston, Dick and Ian Campbell, Ian Dair, Willie Renton and Mike Judge. It made you believe that you could be ‘getting a clip on ower the field’ one day and vying with Europe’s elite at Central Park the next. There were more Scouts at Central Park than in the Gang Show. Jim Baxter, Denis Law, Pele and Eusabio disappeared from local playground to be replaced by Jim McArthur, John Dickson and Andy Kinnell clones.

Visiting Stars - In those days every club had players worth watching. Rangers and Celtic had all internationalist line-ups (most of them Scottish). However, every team that came to Central Park had big names; Hibs had Joe McBride, Pat Stanton and Alex Cropley; Motherwell had Dixie Deans and Tam Forsyth; Morton had Bobby Collins and Joe Jordan; Ayr had Quinton Young, George McLean and Johnny Doyle; Falkirk had Alex Ferguson, Alex Scott and Andy Roxburgh; Dunfermline had er, um er. St Mirren who were relegated with us in 1971 had Gordon McQueen, Ian Munro, Bobby McKean and Ally McLeod in their side! Look at the crap they have in the SPL nowadays - a bunch of foreigners and colourless unknowns.

The Ground - The Fife Hampden, the Fife Maracana, and the Miner’s Mecca - Central Park was vast back then. The main stand was massive and could hold over 3,000, the "Cooshed’ stood there in all its corrugated iron glory, and the terraces were sweeping with crush barriers and railway sleepers placed randomly round the ground. The old perimeter fence encircled an area about twice the size of the current stadium precincts. We had a practice pitch inside the ground back then and the floodlights were brand new. The pitch though was often a quagmire when the burn outside overflowed. It was possible to row a boat across large parts of the pitch in the early 1970’s.

Of course all this was when TV’s were mainly black and white, we had pound shillings and pence to spend, Dixon of Dock Green was a police show at the cutting edge, there were pits and miners, and Donald Findlay, the only Tory ever to come from Cowdenbeath, remained undiscovered. It was so long ago but still remains so vivid in my mind. We will not see the likes of those days again I fear.