Keep Fighting

by paul harrison

  ‘Raploch was a tough part of Stirling. Raploch was a hard place, not criminally, but one of those places that as a child you had to learn the rule of street law very quickly. Nothing came easy and you had to stand your ground and never show any weakness, even if you were scared to death. Once you had established your level on the streets you became part of the pecking order, a league table of respect really.

  ‘I had my fair share of scrapes and incidents with some of the bigger lads who would try it on to see if they could bully you. Whatever the size of bully who fancied a go at me, I always gave as good as I got and defended the honour of my family and friends above everything else. After a time no one picked on me any more and I knew then that I had established my place amongst the kids of Raploch.

  ‘The nice thing about Raploch was, that despite its local tags of “Little Chicago” or “Raptap”, it was in fact a loyal community. If a family was struggling with anything, without any prompting whatsoever, other Raploch families would automatically help them out. I learned a few harsh lessons on the streets of Raploch and Stirling but the one thing that remained with me was that no one was better than anyone else, we were all equals. To me that's a fundamental lesson of life, we are all people, human beings, we come into this world with nothing and we sure as hell leave it with nothing, so we should enjoy and make the most of it while we are here. I wouldn't want to have been raised anywhere else. Raploch was my home and will always remain very special to me.’

  Billy's parents both hailed from a working-class background. John William (more commonly known as ‘Pop') worked as a storeman at a Ministry of Defence establishment in Stirling, while his mum, Bridget (Bess), was an excellent mother and wife and managed all things relating to their home.

  From a football perspective the young Billy Bremner (nicknamed Brock) was quite an adept player, appearing for his school football team, St Mary's Primary under-11s at the age of just nine. The school wasn't far from his Weir Street home, literally round the corner.

  Weir Street still exists but the semi-detached council home that Billy shared with his mum and dad no longer stands, demolished as part of the recent Raploch regeneration programme. This is not the first time Raploch has endured major regeneration. During the 1920s and 1930s the council commenced slum clearance and built council houses to replace the older slums at Raploch. It was in one of these modern replacements that Billy lived. Today a modern urban-style property stands on the site of number 35a Weir Street which was once Billy's home.

  As a schoolboy footballer Billy Bremner shone like a lighthouse beacon amongst his contemporaries. He was so skilled and determined that by the time he was thirteen (and attending St Modan's Secondary School) he was playing in an adult league for the Gowan Hill under-21 team. He had shown sheer persistence by turning up to watch the team train in all weathers and helping collect and recover footballs that had gone astray. He would pester the club coach George McDonald, constantly telling him that he was better than some of the other players he had in his team. Giving in to the claims of the young red-haired boy and to one of the Gowan Hill players, Alex Smith, McDonald eventually relented and allowed him to train with the team. He was so impressed that he was at once signed up as a player and given a regular place in the first eleven.

  Isobel McDonald, his cousin and best friend, told me a story that sums up the ingenuity and commitment of a young Bremner, determined not to let anyone down:

  ‘Brock was going to be late for the Gowan Hill team training session one evening. He didn't like to be late for anything; he saw it as letting people down and he hated doing that. When he arrived he was on a bicycle. Now the strange thing was that Brock never owned a bicycle. So that he wouldn't be late he had taken the bike from a neighbour's garden without permission. In his own mind he had borrowed it and he was always going to give it back. When he finally got home and he had the bike with him he received a royal telling off from Pop and Bess, and from the neighbour as well. The biggest punishment to him was that he was grounded for a week for taking someone else's property without first asking. He never did it again and although everyone knew that it was not a disingenuous act, he felt very guilty about the whole thing for months after.’

  Another tale recounted by Isobel involved Billy's liking for certain sweets:

  ‘He was dreadful for eating sweets as a young man – he had a real liking for Mars bars and Rhubarb Rock. One of his neighbours, Mr Wheater, used to make toffee apples to sell in the street and when they were cooked he would place them out on his kitchen window to cool down. The smell of those toffee apples was wonderful even though the window where they sat was two storeys up. Billy and I would wait until we saw him put them out on the window sill to cool then quickly climb up a drainpipe and help ourselves. To this day he never knew it was us that did it.’ During those formative football years the diminutive Bremner was forced to work harder, committing himself to the tackle with greater strength and displaying greater courage and determination on the football field than many other players. He had decided that his size was not something that was going to hold him back:

  ‘I loved playing football as a youngster and I hated defeat. I was not going to allow myself to be classed as too small or too slight. I wanted to be noticed for my skill and ability so I worked harder than most to improve my game. Football was becoming my life. Pop knew the game better than most people in Raploch and Stirling and played a great role in my physical development and improving my ball control and skills. He would say that I was never happier than when I had a football at my feet and I agree with him on that point.’

  The quality of his performances caused many of the best local coaches and football scouts to keep an eye on his progress. A number of appearance for Scotland schoolboys followed, four international games in his final year at St Modan's School, including a Wembley appearance against England schoolboys:

  ‘It was a marvellous thrill to represent my country at such a young age, something I will never forget. I am a devout Scotsman and the thrill of representing my country filled my heart each time I pulled on the national team jersey thereafter. It still gives me a real lift when I think back to each of my international appearances. At schoolboy level you don't really know how to savour the moment or enjoy the occasion, you have a lot of fun and you are playing football in different places, different countries, and not many things can beat that when you are young.

  ‘Yet underpinning that side of it is a more serious tone, you are after all representing your country and any Scot worth their salt would never give less than 100 per cent for their country. It's an honour and a privilege to represent your country or your respective club side and footballers across all divisions and leagues should always remember that fact. Anyone who gives less than 100 per cent in each game is deceiving not only themselves but the supporters too.’

  Such a prodigious talent was clearly destined for a career in professional football and, to all who knew Billy, it seemed a natural progression. His tiger-like aggression and ball distribution as a youngster were described by one local commentator as ‘well in advance of his years. Young Bremner plays with maturity and looks to have the effectiveness of an experienced professional. If he can overcome his physical slightness, then he may well forge a good career for himself in the game’.

  Club scouts were constantly on the lookout for fresh emerging talent and the bigger clubs had excellent communication networks across the British Isles that alerted them to up-and-coming young talent. Together with his pal Tommy Henderson, Bremner was invited for a fortnight of trials with Arsenal and Chelsea, two giants of the English club game. Chelsea had in fact been the English league champions just three years earlier. Managed by the ex-England international Ted Drake, the club must have seemed an attractive proposition to both young men. Both clubs made tentative offers in the hope that they would eventually join them but, astutely, neither Bremner nor Henderson would commit themselves until given time to discuss the long-distance move:
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  ‘We took part in a couple of trial matches and training session during a two-week, all expenses paid, stay down in London. Everything about the place was very different from Scotland. I didn't like it, nor did I feel comfortable about how we were treated. There were a lot of other players on trial, mostly from England, and they seemed to get a lot more attention and stuck together. They were clearly more settled than we were as two Scottish lads. It was such along way from Raploch and Scotland.

  ‘You get a feel for a place and London didn't do it for me at all. When I had been to Wembley and seen small pockets of it, it looked a bleak and unhappy place and from experience I knew that it was filled with very rude and ignorant people. I think Tommy would have fancied it though.

  ‘The other thing that I didn't like was that both clubs made comments about me being of small stature and perhaps therefore not able to compete with bigger, better built players! I thought to myself, “How rude, bugger this, who do you think you are questioning my ability like that?”

  ‘Pop always said to me that good things come in small packages! That apparently isn't the case in London, size matters there! I was determined from that point on to work hard and to prove that size doesn't matter when you can play football. My big fear in signing for a London club was not making the grade; a wrong choice could ruin my entire career. I didn't trust the London thing at all, it wasn't right.’

  On returning to Scotland there came the news that there had been interest shown by the Glasgow giants, Rangers and Celtic. The Rangers scout had made little more than a tentative inquiry and never returned once he realised that Bremner was a Catholic. Not that such matters bothered the Bremner family. Celtic followed up their enquiry with an invite for both Henderson and Bremner to attend a training session at Parkhead the following Tuesday. Being a Celtic fan, Billy, by his own admission, desperately wanted the Bhoys to come through with a firm offer:

  ‘We still had Arsenal and Chelsea showing interest but Celtic would be the one I would have chosen and preferred. The thought of playing for them really excited me. I didn't dislike Rangers mind, I would often go and watch them at Ibrox, but the whole Celtic thing was really appealing. It was an unbelievably incredible time for both Tommy and me. I couldn't take in what was happening and genuinely had to keep pinching myself to make sure it wasn't a dream. I once said to someone that it was like a giant wave that just seemed to carry us on to new heights every day; it was like reading an adventure story, but it involved me.’

  Further offers arrived, this time including Leeds United. A Leeds director, Harry Vennels, and team manager Bill Lambton arrived in Scotland and were keen to secure the signatures of both Bremner and Henderson. Lambton had previously seen both representing Scotland in a schoolboy international at Wembley and had been greatly impressed by Bremner's tenacious attitude and ball control. Leeds weren't about to stand on ceremony, and just days before the Celtic training sessions, they invited the two boys down to Elland Road to see for themselves what the club was like. At this point in time, Leeds United was hardly a prominent force in English football. Bremner admitted that he had never even heard of Leeds United:

  ‘I thought to myself, “Who the hell are this lot, Leeds United, which league do they play in?” I wasn't being critical or cynical but outside the first division and with living in Scotland, I hadn't really any idea about many, if any, of the lower level football teams, other than the grand-sounding Exeter City! Pop was keen for me to go to England as he thought it was a better standard of game down there, especially in the top two leagues. Whatever Pop said was always right and I knew he had my best interests at heart. The Leeds people were persistent; they told us they were family focused and looked after all their young players and their families. They were looking to the future. I liked what I was hearing and my family agreed that I should go and see the club and the place for myself.’

  At Elland Road, Leeds Chairman Harry Reynolds took a personal interest in both players and guided them through his own personal ambition for the club, making no elaborate claims or promises but assuring the boys that Leeds was an ambitious club with some great young talent. Bremner recalled this encounter:

  ‘He seemed a down-to-earth and a likeable, open character. I don't really know what it was about Leeds United which impressed me so much, but at the time I felt it was the right decision to join them. They had quite a few youngsters with them, and these lads were honest, like my pals up in Scotland. I liked that.

  ‘It certainly wasn't a case of first impressions that attracted me. The Elland Road stadium was hardly a patch on its present almost regal state and, to be honest, it was depressing and reminded me of the banks of a coal quarry. When I signed I really found it difficult to settle in the city. The people were great, friendly and welcoming, and the club and the officials were good to both Tommy and me, but it wasn't Scotland, it wasn't Stirling. Everything I knew and missed was back in Stirling, my family, my pals and the fun times. Now I had to prove myself to be a man and to make a new life for myself in Yorkshire. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but never did I envisage how homesick I would become.

  ‘Poor Tommy couldn't handle it at all, and he decided that he had to go home. Cyril Williamson, the Leeds general manager, held a lot of meetings with us and gave us a weekly pep talk. I didn't want to let anyone down, not Leeds, not my family and definitely not myself. As if that wasn't sufficient pressure, I knew that just about all of Raploch was behind me, willing me to succeed, so for them I decided to stick it out. Tommy got fed up with it and went home. I felt so sad for him, yet I still believe he didn't give it anywhere near enough time. I was more determined and something inside told me that it was right for me to stick it out at Leeds, at least for a wee bit longer.

  ‘My gut instinct was to prove right and it wasn't too long before I was told that I was being given a run-out in the reserves at Deepdale, Preston. It was a midweek game. I felt fantastic and on a real high. If only Tommy had waited he would have been lining up alongside me. For the first time in my football career I felt that I had actually achieved something for myself.

  ‘Even though it was only the reserves, I fully intended to treat it as importantly as any game in which I had ever played. I thought I did alright; I kept it simple, and always made the easy pass. Because I was generally smaller than many of the players on the pitch that day, I was quickly on the receiving end of a few rough and unfair tackles. At first I looked for the sympathy of the referee, but found my protestations to him ignored. So I thought to myself, “Right Bill, it's sink or swim time, you have to keep fighting.” Pretty soon I was holding my own and then started to impose myself on the game. It wasn't pretty or beautiful, but it worked for me that day. When we came off at the end, the staff were really pleased with me and told me I was the best player on the pitch. I felt great, but my legs ached and were covered in cuts and bruises as a result of the rough treatment dished out by the Preston boys.’

  Billy continued to work hard at his game. However, with the undoubted quality of the Leeds first team, he remained very much a reserve-team player. Manager Bill Lambton, who had been handed the post in December 1958, resigned just three months later. By May 1959, rumours were rife that Lambton was to be replaced by Headington United manager Arthur Turner. For whatever reason the move didn't happen and Jack Taylor, then manager of Queen's Park Rangers, joined Leeds as manager instead.

  The managerial merry-go-round was giving cause for concern to those within the club, including Billy:

  ‘It was a bad time for everyone at Leeds; players were unsettled and team tactics were all over the place. I was really fed up. It was great playing regularly for the reserves but after a while I wanted more, I wanted a place in the first team and that didn't look very likely. I would have accepted a move back home to Scotland; I was becoming more and more restless at the lack of opportunities and felt I was never going to get the chance.

  ‘With Bill Lambton gone, I wondered whether I would slip completely o
ut of the first-team picture. I would often talk over my worries with my cousin Issy and my mate Alex Smith. They were excellent pals, and told me to keep at it, to stay focused and to take the opportunity when it came along. They would remind me how grim life in Raploch could be, and how I was gifted and had a chance to make something of myself.’

  Billy had little need for concern, as it wasn't too long before the new manager called him into his office for a quiet chat:

  ‘I had a couple of conversations with Jack Taylor. He had showed some interest in keeping me on the fringes of the first team, but he didn't feel I was yet capable of holding down a regular first-team position. So I told him that I felt I should have broken into the first team by now, I was consistently performing well for the reserves, yet for whatever reason it hadn't happened for me – I was being overlooked. I told him I was thinking about getting myself a move back to Scotland. I was surprised to hear him say that he knew every club in Scotland and many in England would want me. He listened to me and understood my frustration. His parting advice was that it would be in my best interests not to seek a move away from Leeds but to stick it out, as bigger things awaited me while he was manager. I wasn't at all sure what he meant, but he was a Yorkshire man and seemed genuine enough. He was experienced in the game and had a great playing record behind him at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Norwich, so I decided to wait a wee while before formally asking for a transfer.’

  3

  MARCHING ON TOGETHER

  The moment Bremner had waited so patiently for arrived on Saturday, 23 January 1960. Winger Chris Crowe was forced to drop out of the first team through injury and Billy Bremner was added to the first team to play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge:

  ‘I thought, “Christ what a coincidence, making my debut against a club that had shown a bit of interest in signing me before Leeds had come in.” It was also a club who said I was too small to make it in the professional game in England. A comment I was not to forget.’