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Tommy Bryceland Passes Away


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I am lucky enough - and old enough - to have great memories of Tommy. Two in particular were his winning goal against Motherwell in the cup-winning run and a brilliant glancing near post header to open the scoring at Ibrox when we won 3-1 there for the first time in 55 years! They had to be good to have stuck in the memory for so long. In the "Marching In" video, Davie Lapsley described him as a "cheeky wee player" which summed him up beautifully. Really sad to hear that he's gone, but he'll never be forgotten by anyone who saw him play in the years before he moved on to Norwich.

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Strange that Norwich had time to put a story on their website, but no black armbands are being worn in their game today which kicked off at 12.45. Not expecting Diana-esque carpets of flowers or tea light candles, but teams usually wear black armbands or have a moment's silence / applause in these circumstances.

Edited by pozbaird
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Yes now that you mention it I was also at that game, we came back from 1-0 down to win 2-1. I didn't realise that was his last goal.

It was actually the last league game of that season (71/72). He only played one more game after that, the following season.

Quite a few decent players we had in 72/73. Gordon McQueen, Iain Munro, Ally McLeod, Bobby McKean and Jim Blair.

McQueen & Blair were sold early that season however.

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Only Bluto and Rick did.

A few more than me and Bluto, Shull, but I'm really delighted that I saw him play for St.Mirren and bloody nearly performing miracles. I've always believed that Wee Tam and Jim Baxter were the best Scottish players in pure footballing terms that I ever had the privilege of seeing. And of course they fought the bit out regularly, most famously at Ibrox. Both were kind of flawed geniuses in some ways. I think his goal in the 59 final was a cracker but despite that a lot reckoned it was a bit of a fluke. Bollocks! He always had amazing awareness of where the opposition players were and how a wee guy like him got up and glanced that almost backward header in I'll never know. Genius at work.

Don't know if I posted this before. (Bluto, don't read this. I know I told you this story before and you got upset) I got to know Tommy quite well in the early 80's before I moved over here and he told me that the Third Lanark players all had money on St.Mirren the night of the 8-0 thrashing we handed out to them on the night of the cup replay at Cathkin in 1961. I've always regarded that night as the Wee Tamm/ Jolly Rodger show. What a night. Tommy said that years later when some of the Hi Hi players told him he absolutely refused to believe them but he did believe it in the end. Hope it's not true. Could bets like that be placed back then?

RIP, Tommy, and thanks for the fantastic memories.

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I saw Tommy playing a number of times and my recollections were of a small tricky inside forward who had a great knack of dribbling past players with ease and scoring goals.

I also seem to remember him breaking his leg following a tackle by Davie Holt of Hearts at Love Street. That was probably around 1961 or 62 before he left us for Norwich City.

Always had a quiff in his hair, well plastered with Brylcreem.

Brilliant player, the likes of which we don't see today as the ball dribbling skills like that were probably learned on the waste grounds or the street where you lived. He was worth a Scottish cap, but there were other good inside forwards at that time from both Celtic and Rangers, so hard to get past them in the pecking order.

Great memories.

Here's a link to a great year and how much influence Tommy had on the team in these days: http://www.stmirren.info/id307.html

Edited by The Original 59er
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59er. He was indeed worth a Scottish cap and I have a recollection that he was actually selected for one around 1959 or 1960, but had to withdraw because of injury. I also have a feeling that his replacement was Denis Law. I'll be interested to know if anyone else remembers this as I stand to be corrected, but I've always believed this to have been the case.

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Worth noting that Tommy Bryceland was only 19 during that cup run of 1959, including the demolition of Celtic in the Semi Final. He only just turned 20 before the final.

Jackie McGugan was also only 19. Gerry Baker was 20, Tommy Leishman 21, Alistair Miller 23. Young team.

Also worth noting that Tommey Bryceland was one of the original 100 players in the Norwich City hall of fame. He was obviously highly rated down there as well!

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Was not aware until I read the obituary for Tommy in the Scotsman, that Jackie McGugan from the 1959 cup-winning team had also passed away a couple of months before Tommy.

He went on to play for Leeds United, Tranmere Rovers, Ayr United, Morton and Cambridge City.

I remember him vaguely as a young no-nonsense centre half not unsimilar to our present day Jack.

At Leeds United he was competing at that time against another Jack (Charlton) for a first team place.

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Stu. Thanks for flagging up the obituary in the Scotsman. It made for interesting reading. I am also pleased that my memory of Tommy missing out on a representative game because of injury was mentioned and though I wasn't wholly accurate it wasn't just a figment of my imagination. I wonder what it might have led to if he hadn't been injured!

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59er. He was indeed worth a Scottish cap and I have a recollection that he was actually selected for one around 1959 or 1960, but had to withdraw because of injury. I also have a feeling that his replacement was Denis Law. I'll be interested to know if anyone else remembers this as I stand to be corrected, but I've always believed this to have been the case.

I'm fairly certain Tommy was capped by the Scottish Schools Football Association. Maybe not quite so grand but credit worthy. He was regarded as a bit of a Teddy boy when he was in his late teens and you know what Park Gardens stuffed shirts were like back then. And now.

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