Goalkeeping career was a mistake

Pars 1961 Cup winner Eddie Connachan recalls some stories.

Scottish Cup Winners 1961

Eddie Connachan, Dunfermline Athletic's goalkeeper and hero in the 1961 Scottish Cup Final Replay victory over Celtic was at East End Park on Saturday to see the Pars reach their third Semi Final in four years. Back for the Dunfermline Athletic Hall of Fame at Forrester Park on Saturday 3rd May, Eddie managed to miss some of his former team mates who were also at the game on Saturday.

The Hall of Fame will re unite him with Jim Herriott, George Peebles and Alex Smith. The goalkeeper from the 1968 Cup winning Pars team, Bent Martin will also return to be assumed into the Hall of Fame. Eddie recalled the camaraderie that Jock Stein created at East End Park and how he will be delighted to see his old pals:-

"To the 61 Cup winning side Stein brought in John Lunn and Willie Callaghan. Stein made it into a family, all the guys were mates, it didn't matter who you were with you enjoyed each others company. There were no cleeks and the relationships were all very good.

"None of the Edinburgh guys felt it, none of the Glasgow guys felt it and then you had the Fife guys. Three types except Willie Cunningham, he was Irish and nobody knew what he was talking about anyway."

Eddie paid tribute to trainer Jimmy Stevenson, Hon Sec the recently departed Jimmy McConville and the Chairman Andy Watson.

One would expect that having been involved in Dunfermline's first ever Scottish Cup success that the victory would have been his deepest memory but strangely it was his bizarre debut for the Fifers at Chirnside in the East of Scotland League that he talked about first:-

"The day I signed for Dunfermline with Andy Dickson as Manager Dunfermline lost 2-1 to Rangers that night but I had already signed. I could have gone to Dundee or Clyde at that time but I liked Dunfermline. At the beginning of the next season we only had eleven players with two goalkeepers in that eleven Bill Beaton played in goals and I played outside left. We didn't have a reserve league then because we had been relegated to the Second Division."

The intrigue increases when Eddie who was capped for Scotland tells you that being a goalkeeper was really a mistake:-

"I played as striker with St Gabriels Boys Club in Prestonpans and went up to trial for Edinburgh Norton 17s. Their goalkeeper had called off and my cousin who played for them said 'Eddie will play in goals then'. I saved a penalty and after that I was a goalkeeper."

Jim Leishman introduced Eddie to the guests in hospitality on Saturday

Jock Stein treated all his players as friends and Eddie believed that contributed to the success that came Dunfermline's way when the Big Man took over:-

"You had a feeling with him. His approach to the whole game; we weren't used to a Manager coming in and saying this is what you do, this team plays like that. Stein knew what the opposition would do; he knew the Celtic guys. In the Replay game he told John Sweeney to sit on Willie Fernie and he played him right out of the game."

Eddie now lives at Kaysers Beach in East London, South Africa having gone there to coach. He managed his local team, East London United taking them to fourth in the National Football League and he brought over layers from Scotland to play with him; Alex Hamilton formerly of Dundee, Bobby Braithwaite who played for Northern Ireland with George Best, Billy Higgins who played with Hearts. His success continued in the amateur Inter Province competition for the Currie Cup where he took Border State to their first ever success.