Figures On The Edge No 2-Michael Hanlon

Michael was one of the predominant figures at The Stair. He was around nine months or so younger than me. Like me he was in the upper median age group of children at The Stair and was a boy who liked to be outside so was a key figure over the period. As a young lad at primary school he was a gentle and likeable lad, who once he got older and went to Firhill Secondary School came more into his own. He was a very sociable boy and enjoyed playing with most of the boys around. In particular he was friendly with the likes of Jonathan Taylor and Colin McFarlane from local Stairs and also Willie Taylor, Jonathan's brother.

Over the years I must have played hundreds of games of football with Michael and also have gone jumping the burn with him in large groups of boys and girls. Michael and a group of boys were quite into Japs and Commandos types of games which didn't appeal to me, so I tended not to be quite so close to that group of lads as he was.

Michael Hanlon (Willie Taylor in background)

Willie Taylor; Michael Hanlon; Keith Robertson; Steve Westbrook
Front Row: Boo-Boo Hanlon; John Duffy; Mark Robertson; and Iain Hoffmann

Once at secondary school Michael was very proactive in organising more formal football matches than we had previously been involved in-he organised matches in which we (Red Star) had take ons again other local street teams-in my diaries I come across references of Michael wants me to play against Joe Rendall's; Kenny Taylor's; Martin Davidson's teams. I won't bore you with the details of the results, but they were close affairs. Apart from myself all these lads were at Firhill. Michael had to alert me to the games asking if I would turn out. I wasn't playing much football by then as I was playing rugby for Boroughmuir Secondary School.

Whilst I enjoyed these matches and ninety minutes of hard effort I sense a growing frustration in some of my diary entries-I was playing in midfield, but covering a lot of the ground, both forward and back and felt that several of my team-mates weren't pulling their weight-I wasn't specifically critical of anyone, but was saying that I had run myself into the ground. Knowing myself that was probably more a reflection of how competitive I was-I was a fair player, most of the time thinly disguising a very steely will to win whereby I would give my all in these games. Others were much more balanced and probably just enjoyed the matches for what they were, giving a certain amount of effort. Michael as the owner of the team was probably the captain which was just as well-he was a far nicer lad than me and I would have been too hard a task-master, unfortunately probably more in the Roy Kean mould!

On one occasion in the autumn there was a period of very heavy rain where the Braid Burn had completely flooded its banks-at Firhill Crescent at the old multi-storeyed fifteen floor villages in the sky playground the water was very deep. A group of us had ventured out in our Wellington boots. I can recall Michael bending over fascinated by the depth of the burn-it must have been eight feet-well I'm ashamed to say that I couldn't resist giving him a nudge with a gentle knee to his backside-well blow me down he toppled straight over and into the water-we all laughed like drains, made worse when he emerged like a drowned rat exclaiming It's nae funny Peter what will ma faither say! I do recall we dried Mike's clothes in front of our fire before he went up The Stair but probably not before he had given me a bloody nose!

Out-with Douglas Blades and Liz Blades, I think Michael was the first member of The Stair to leave school when he went off to join the Royal Navy-in later years I think Michael had spells with the Fire Brigade and the Army too-a life devoted to public service for which he would have been very well suited.

First and Last Times

In his wonderful Diaries, Alan Clark mentions the importance of first and last times by recognising, acknowledging and celebrating the occasion - going out with style.That's of course fine if you know it's going to be your last time - more often than not one is unaware or so in the moment, there is an inability to step back from the experience and recognise it as such. Like most of the other boys at Oxgangs, football was my sport - the beautiful game. I loved the games of football which we played endlessly and gave my all in every match. A lot of the time I played up in The Field - often three games of an evening - with the big boys; then the bigger boys; and then with boys my own age.

'Don't Know How The Trees Survived!'

Back Field Oxgangs Road North

At six o'clock there was the big match which mainly featured boys who were around four or five years older than me. I was the only boy of my age who played in these games. As mentioned in an earlier vignette, Andy Allan (Captain Fantastic) picked one team whilst Richard Kennedy (Merc) captained the other team.

Some fine players featured in these games at Oxgangs who thereafter went on to play professionally for the likes of Hearts, including Eric Carruthers. However, one player was metaphorically, if not literally, head and shoulders above the rest. He was a class apart. His name was Titch Macmillan. He was a quite brilliant player. He was skilful as Messi. I loved watching him on the ball. He was a supreme artist, poetry in motion. His younger brother, Rab McMillan, who was a couple of years older than me, wasn't that far behind Tich.

Tich didn't make it to the same high level as Eric Carruthers, probably because they thought him too small. He may have gone on to play in Australia at a semi-professional level. Some people thought he was perhaps too greedy on the ball - there's a happy balance between being an individualist and doing the right thing by the team. Titch was the perfect size for today's Barcelona team. Physically he was a doppelganger for Messi in size, skill and appearance. I never felt envious of Tich. Because he was four years older he was somebody who I could aspire to and try to match one day. Also, I took consolation that I could already out-run all the older boys.

When I played with the older boys it always lifted my game. I loved the challenge of playing with and against them and trying to take the ball past their defence or to show some vision with a nicely weighted pass. Playing with Andy as my captain facilitated this approach and gave me the confidence to try things and express myself. He complimented me when it worked and if on occasion it didn't quite come off, he didn't criticise me. It was the carrot rather than the stick approach to management - admirable and mature given that Andy would have been only around sixteen years old.

At the age of twelve I went to Boroughmuir Secondary School where there was no football, so instead I played rugby for the school. This pleased my father. From 1968, apart from occasionally playing for Michael Hanlon's teams in their matches against a Joe Rendall Select or a Kenny Taylor Select I gave up football altogether. I only resumed playing again in my forties and

fifties with colleagues at work and more recently with Atticus and d’Artagnan.

Looking back I should have stuck with the footie.

Postscript: I’m pleased to say that my youthful assessment of George Tich McMillan’s skills were not far off the mark as he went on to become a legend in Australian football, including scoring against Manchester United in a friendly and the winning goal in a sensational victory by Western Australia against Glasgow Rangers in 1975.