Wullie P

[weeyin]

Nice piece on our very own Wullie Pettigrew in The Scotsman.

 

Interview: Willie Pettigrew, ex-Motherwell striker

 

by AIDAN SMITH

 

Published on the 11 January

 

I’M A stranger in this town, name of Hamilton. It’s difficult to avoid cowboy allusions when the man I’m meeting is Willie Pettigrew, the great goal desperado from the 1970s with the moustache to match, but maybe comedy allusions would be more appropriate.

 

I already know him as one half of a terrific strike partnership. Now I’m wondering if he and Bobby Graham were also a double-act in laughs. Maybe not Morecambe & Wise class, but Pettigrew solo is definitely funnier than Cannon and Ball put together.

 

Sans mouser and not much hair either, he picks me up from the train station and, knowing it’s my first time, takes me on a tour of the most prominent roadworks before quipping: “That’ll be the place off your bucket list then.” At his front door he cautions: “There’s a dog. He doesn’t bite but he will lick you to death.” In the front room there are also cockatiels and, remembering my old weekly newspaper editor’s instruction to always get pets’ names, I ask what they’re called. “No idea,” he says, fetching coffees. “Poor man’s parrots, I don’t get familiar with them. They were dumped on us by my son when he went off to Canada to become a snowboarding instructor. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘they’ll drop off their perch soon enough.’ Four years later they’re still bloody here.”

 

From the Not-Dead Cockatiel Sketch, Pettigrew, 60, moves on to funny stories about Ally MacLeod, John Greig, Kenny Dalglish, Wallace Mercer, the proverbial man-and-his-dog at Brechin City and those famous slapstick brothers, the McLeans Jim, Willie and Tommy. The yarns do not have the whiff of the after-dinner circuit about them. Then he takes out his wallet and produces a snap in faded Kodachrome of baby Craig, the future exotic-bird depositor, plonked in the Scottish League Cup while his mum Audrey looks on. “Every time after that when Celtic and Rangers players have drunk champagne from the trophy I’ve had a wee chuckle because that was a very dirty nappy!”

 

Pettigrew twice won the League Cup with Dundee United but is best-remembered for his goal-grabbing on gluepot pitches for Motherwell, although he might have been a Hibee. I think I knew this. Wouldn’t Hibernian pay his bus fare as an S-form or something, or was that Gordon Strachan? Anyway, both these guys have places in the All-Time Great Lost Mythical Hibs XI. “I’ll tell you the story,” he says. “I was playing for a wee team in Bonkle which had just sent Billy McEwan to Hibs when Dave Ewing was the manager. At that time, aged 15, it was said of me by Falkirk and a few other clubs: ‘All he can do is score goals.’ My view was: ‘Well, is that no’ the point of the game?’ Anyway I signed my S-form with Hibs but they played me at centre-half, even right-back. It took me a year to get out of Easter Road.”

 

Ally MacLeod at least knew Pettigrew’s best position and, although the two would fall out later when the former took over at Motherwell, he tried his best to get the youngster to sign for Ayr United. “Ally was in my parents’ house for six hours. Eventually my folks, by that point in their jammies, went off to bed. I told him I’d made a gentleman’s agreement to join Motherwell and I was sticking to it.”

 

At Fir Park, when he landed in ’72, his pal from back in primary school had been Willie Leishman. “He’s dead now, but when we were both part-time and he got made up to full-time, I was miffed and marched in to see the manager. This was Ian St John. ‘So you want to be full-time, too?’ he said. ‘All right then, you are.’ And that was to be his last act as Motherwell boss; the following day he left for Portsmouth.”

 

Pettigrew was never shy about voicing his opinions. “I had attitude as a footballer and sometimes it came off the park with me. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, basically.” But some of the opinions sounded perfectly valid. “I wanted to be coached. Ian St John took me aside and taught me stuff, which was great. That never happened before, or after really. Later at Hearts, when I was struggling a bit, I asked Walter Borthwick if I could come back in the afternoons for some shooting practice. He said: ‘Sorry Willie but I’m going shopping with the wife.’ ”

 

At ’Well under Willie McLean the transition to full-time was tricky. How did he spend his downtime? “Playing snooker and other things I wouldn’t like quoted!” Agitating for a first-team opportunity, he got his chance to deputise for the injured Bobby Graham one Christmas in what would be a venomous derby at Airdrie’s Broomfield (was there any other kind back then?). “The ball hardly touched the ground, the pitch was like a war zone and I got hauled off at half-time.” But with Graham back next game he was allowed to budge up next to the ex-Liverpool man; ’Well beat Ayr 5-1 and Pettigrew bagged four.

 

I love these old footballers who scored for fun wherever they went, like it was their trade, which it was. The modern version can sometimes be a baffled, and baffling, striker-hybrid who’ll have the media trying to explain away his goal drought, insisting that full acclimatisation to a club takes time, although his designer labels indicate he’s had no trouble finding the swankiest local stores. Pettigrew smiles as the likes of Joe McBride and Alan Gordon flit through the conversation. “The ethos in the game now doesn’t seem to be about what you’ve won but how much you’ve earned. If you’re a millionaire you must be a good footballer. Well, not always. In my day I looked up to Celtic and Rangers guys who didn’t wear their medals on their chests but were definitely winners. That’s what I wanted to be, and maybe to play for my country as well. Those were special things you could hold dear.”

 

Now he’s laughing again because he’s remembered the night he enraged Kenny Dalglish. “It was a World Cup qualifier against Wales [’76] and, with Scotland winning 1-0, I got on for the last ten minutes and right away chased a lost-cause ball, cut inside and shot. Kenny went mental; he wanted me to waste time. But from first minute to last my view was always the same: ‘There’s a goal for me in this game.’ If someone chucked a ball in here just now you’d be in trouble. I’d be right over that table!”

 

Pettigrew, who won five caps, scoring an absolute cracker on his dark blue debut against Switzerland, now coaches Motherwell under-14s. “I look around the car park at our training complex at Braidhurst and there must be a couple of million pounds worth of motors there. You know, I didn’t get free sweeties as a kid; I had to work for them. If I was to ask these Motherwell lads to do what I did at that age, travel three hours by bus, two trains and on foot to training, I’m not sure many would. I did it on my own, mind, and for good reasons that wouldn’t be allowed now. Not to Edinburgh, anyway!” (A joke at the capital’s expense from a Lanarkshire vantage-point, rather than the other way round? Surely a first).

 

The Pettigrew-Graham double-act wasn’t created in a science lab or even, very much, on the training pitch. “We didn’t work at it; we just seemed to know where the other one would be.” This is remarkable when you dig out old clips of their interplay, with muddy or rutted fields no impediment to back-heeled one-twos, before the customary dead-eyed finish by Pettigrew. “Bobby could score too, and I made some goals for him. He’s 69 now and still one of my good pals, though two weeks ago, according to him, he was faster than me. I’m no’ having that!”

 

If he didn’t have to work at the partnership, did he work at his hair? After all, the Pettigrew barnet was one of the 70s’ most emblematic. “Naw,” he laughs. “Were there even hair-dryers in those days?” He fetches the scrapbooks and what a trichological tapesty they offer up: mad hair, crazy hair, hair from a Peter McDougall gangland drama, hair from the court of Louis XIV. Best of all are the shots where, perversely, the photographer has insisted our man stand side-on to a Lanarkshire gale, so one side flaps upwards like half of a hopelessly-assembled tent.

 

He talks some more about the attitude he wore under Motherwell’s claret slash. “My mother used to say she couldn’t talk after I’d hit 12. From then I always knew what I was doing.” Mind you, attitude came as standard in 70s footballers. “Tackling from behind was allowed back then; as was tackling from above. In the first ten minutes of a match you’d always get a slap. Against the Old Firm, and Motherwell used to cause them problems, you’d get up straight away and their guys would think: ‘Well, there’s a game on today.’ John Greig would kick three shades of sh**e out of you and at the end he’d want to shake your hand. ‘Good game, Wullie.’ ‘Aye, maybe from where you’re standing. I’ll be getting a wheelchair to the pub!’ ”

 

Pettigrew reels off the ’Well team which threatened to win something but didn’t quite, including Joe Wark (“You don’t get one-club men like him anymore”), Bobby Watson (“The lay preacher”), Vic Davidson (“He’s in America now”) and Stewart MacLaren (“A nice guy who if you broke his leg wouldn’t react, though ten minutes later he might hit you over the head with the stump”). Then there were the real tough nuts, Willie McVie and Gregor Stevens. “We’d just carry on training round about them whenever they started fighting. On cold days Willie would wear green gloves at Ibrox and blue ones at Parkead to wind up their fans. Gregor was a nice guy off the park but in games he just used to turn into a psycho. Christ, I hope I don’t bump into him this afternoon!”

 

Pettigrew twice topped Scotland’s scoring charts. As reward he was made, he believes, Scotland’s highest-paid player. “I think that was Motherwell’s downfall, and probably mine as well. There was some jealousy, and more pressure on me. I became a marked man, or more of one. I fell out with Willie McLean. Bobby moved on to Hamilton and I was always a better player alongside him.”

 

Willie McLean he rates the quietest of the brotherly triumvirate. “The most knowledgable, some reckoned, but he could be devious, slapping you on the back one day and trying to sell you the next. I got Tommy at a good time, his first manager’s job at Morton with Tam Forsyth as his assistant. I called them ‘Haud it and daud it.’ ” And in between, for the £100,000 which took him to Dundee Utd in ’79, there was Jim. “I’ll be eternally grateful to Jim for signing me and for the medals I would never have won at Motherwell.” There’s a “but”, of course. “He could be a nutcase. He demanded absolute perfection, which isn’t possible, and thought I was too one-dimensional. We thrashed Fergie’s Aberdeen 4-1 and I scored with a great volley. Afterwards, all he wanted to talk about was a 90-yard run I’d made. ‘Do that more often,’ he said. ‘Aye Boss but what about my goal?’ Another time against Morton I disobeyed his orders at a corner and, instead of going to the near post, hung around the penalty spot. The ball came straight to me – goal. He went mad. It was as if he’d rather have seen me make the perfect decoy run. In fairness to Jim, though, when I’d fallen out of the team before the [1980] League Cup semi, he put me back in for that tie and the final because I’d played in all the earlier rounds. He was superstitious like that.”

 

Another move, to Hearts, produced more goals for a gunslinger who’d finish with 140 to his name – and another bust-up. “Wallace Mercer never spoke to me after a party at his big house in [Edinburgh’s] Barnton when we won the old First Division and I got too drunk. I embarrassed myself by dancing on his billiards table.” His final strikes came for Morton, including one at Brechin that rates among the most satisfying of his career. “All game I had to take dog’s abuse from this lone punter. ‘Yer nuthin’ without Graham,’ he’d shout. After I’d nutmegged the centre-half, walked round the ’keeper and stuck it away I ran over to the old moan and said: ‘That okay for you?’ He marched straight out of the ground!”

 

The cockatiels haven’t let up all afternoon but Pettigrew has been even chirpier. After retiring he had his own grocery business, got into money trouble, was advised by the bank to sell his house, but in the same self-taught, self-determined way he went about football, salvaged the situation. He took a nightshift job so he could care for his parents in their final days. Last October, he and Audrey went to Las Vegas to celebrate his 60th.

 

“I’ve no regrets,” he says finally. “I tell the kids I coach that they must work harder because I now know what they should be doing. When I was playing nobody told me. Saying that, today’s techniques might have made me a better player but I’d probably have scored fewer goals.”

 

Oh, and next month Pettigrew will be inducted into Dundee Utd’s Hall of Fame. He wonders if Jim McLean will be there and would like to see him again. “Even though he’ll probably expect me to walk in a different door for that wee element of surprise!”

[phoenix]

I bet we could get 1000 on the gate next home game if Wullie and Bobby agreed to a half time race across the halfway line and back. Good article that.

[weeyin]

I bet we could get 1000 on the gate next home game if Wullie and Bobby agreed to a half time race across the halfway line and back. Good article that.

 

I still have nightmares about the the race he had against the WBA players at Joe Wark's testimonial!

 

I agree though, it's a good article.

[something else]

Cheers for that weeyin. Very enjoyable read.

[joewarkfanclub]

Great article.

 

One of my two all time favourite Motherwell players. Funny that despite winning 2 League Cups at Utd he is still considered "Motherwells Willie Pettigrew"

 

Had a wee chuckle at his descriptions of McVie and Stevens! They used to scare the sh#t out of me and I was just a wee boy standing looking on!

[SteelmaninOZ]

Great article....Oh Wullie! Wullie!

[chummy]

Met both on numerous occassions, wee bobby an absolute gentleman, pettigrew a bit of a fud tbh, no doubting his football ability.

Whats that they say about meeting your heros?

[underboyleheating]

Whats that they say about meeting your heros?

That’s the chance you take, sometimes it’s better just to have the memories. I have never met Wullie or Bobby, however I did meet Joe Wark in the mid 70s and he was a gentleman.

 

 

 

[chummy]

That’s the chance you take, sometimes it’s better just to have the memories. I have never met Wullie or Bobby, however I did meet Joe Wark in the mid 70s and he was a gentleman.

Wasnt called gentleman joe for nothing.

Remember my wee mum hunting high n low for a number 3 to sew onto the back of my well top.......hero

[texanwellfan]

Met both on numerous occassions, wee bobby an absolute gentleman, pettigrew a bit of a fud tbh, no doubting his football ability.

Whats that they say about meeting your heros?

 

I wonder what he thought of you

 

nnever had any problems with him. fine lad.

[chummy]

Cudnt give a monkeys what he thought of me, one of the times me n my mates met him yrs ago at a game, he came over as a bit aloof n a bit of a fud...just me maybe.

[El Grew]

Oh Wullie, Wullie. Wullie, Wullie, Wullie Pettigrew. Legend. IMHO a member of the best 'We'll team never to win anything in the mid-70s.

Consider 1976. We finish paged 4th in the SPL behind Celtic, Rangers and Hibs. These were three of the best sides ever to come from these clubs. Then in the Scottish Cup we were drawn to play all 3!! We never ever seemed to get easy draws in the Cup even them.

SC 3rd Round at home v Celtic (the then cup holders wit a side containing the likes of Dalglish and McGrain in their prime). Won 3-2 after being 0-2 at half-time. Man pure ecstasy.

SC 4th Round away to Cowdenbeath. Potential banana skin. Fro memory we didn't play well but won 2-0. I think Peyer Marinello got one but not sure who got the other. I think we had well over 5,000 fans in Cowdenbeath that Saturday as it looked ad though we'd invaded the place wit C&A everywhere. Great away day.

SC 1/4 Final home v Hibs. Over 20,000 in FP to see us draw 1-1 thanks to a last gasp equaliser for Hibs from wee Jimmy O'Rourke later to play for us.Replay at Easter Road. Again over 20,000 turned up. Another 1-1 draw after we had been in front. Can't recall the scores though.Another replay - neutral ground. Ibrox chosen. Another 20,000 plus crowd saw us manage to win 1-0. I think Wullie P scored but can't remember.

At last a cup semi. Possible opponents Hearts, Dumbarton or Rangers. Aye, we got the hard one, Rangers and I still find it hard to recall the events of that night.

Still it's cheers to The Grew and all the lads in that side for giving us such a great time.Maybe some of the posters who watched us then can fill in the blank scores or correct mine if wrong.

[chummy]

Is that the semi when johnstone was "fouled" 5yds outside the box, when we were winning 2-0,and they got a pen,,, we lost 3-2.

Remember sobbin ma eyes oot back in motherwell at the carlton cafe in flemington, and a rangers fan tellin me we were robbed.

Always hated that h*n fucker after that

[steelman1991]

Oh Wullie, Wullie. Wullie, Wullie, Wullie Pettigrew. Legend. IMHO a member of the best 'We'll team never to win anything in the mid-70s.

Consider 1976. We finish paged 4th in the SPL behind Celtic, Rangers and Hibs. These were three of the best sides ever to come from these clubs. Then in the Scottish Cup we were drawn to play all 3!! We never ever seemed to get easy draws in the Cup even them.

SC 3rd Round at home v Celtic (the then cup holders wit a side containing the likes of Dalglish and McGrain in their prime). Won 3-2 after being 0-2 at half-time. Man pure ecstasy.

SC 4th Round away to Cowdenbeath. Potential banana skin. Fro memory we didn't play well but won 2-0. I think Peyer Marinello got one but not sure who got the other. I think we had well over 5,000 fans in Cowdenbeath that Saturday as it looked ad though we'd invaded the place wit C&A everywhere. Great away day.

SC 1/4 Final home v Hibs. Over 20,000 in FP to see us draw 1-1 thanks to a last gasp equaliser for Hibs from wee Jimmy O'Rourke later to play for us.Replay at Easter Road. Again over 20,000 turned up. Another 1-1 draw after we had been in front. Can't recall the scores though.Another replay - neutral ground. Ibrox chosen. Another 20,000 plus crowd saw us manage to win 1-0. I think Wullie P scored but can't remember.

At last a cup semi. Possible opponents Hearts, Dumbarton or Rangers. Aye, we got the hard one, Rangers and I still find it hard to recall the events of that night.

Still it's cheers to The Grew and all the lads in that side for giving us such a great time.Maybe some of the posters who watched us then can fill in the blank scores or correct mine if wrong.

 

What wonderful memories Grew, that was a side that had it all, guts, flair, finesse and brute force when required.

 

Celtic 3-2 (Pettigrew, Graham, Taylor) - nothing more needs said

 

Cowdenbeath - 2-0 (Graham, Marinello)

 

I think your support estimation is way too low - approaching the 7,500 mark by all accounts - buses were queued all the way from the Halbeath interchange at Dunfermline, into Cowdenbeath that day, remember having to cross a burn from the bus park to the stadium. What always stuck with me was Wullie hitting a shot from approx 8 yards out and it didn't even reach the terracing, such was the gap between the playing surface and track (they had stocks and speedway even then).

 

Hibs (H) - 2-2 (Pettigrew, Marinello) - mind may be playing tricks, but was this the game the Hibs lad got led away with the dart sticking out the side of his nose?

Hibs (A) - 1-1 (Graham)

Hibs (N) - 2-1 (Marinello, Taylor)

 

Not even gonna talk about the semi (JPR Gordon cheating c..t) - yes your right chummy that was the one.

 

 

 

[SteelmaninOZ]

El Grew, on 12 January 2014 - 04:00 AM, said:

 

"IMHO a member of the best 'We'll team never to win anything in the mid-70s."

 

Pure joy to watch and the huge crowds we had back then both home and away. (aye ok we had terracing then)

 

CHUMMY I felt the same after that game and yes we were robbed in that game.

 

Steelman1991 Remember seeing that Hibs lad with the dart...

 

Re the article and that photo who picked the wallpaper?

[santheman]

Still remember the 2nd replay, I was at the back of the terracing and when Peter Marinello scored I ended up at the very front minus both trainers and my jeans. Went home with a plastic bag wrapped round my waist and still don't know how it happened to this day.

[underboyleheating]

remember having to cross a burn from the bus park to the stadium.

 

Funny that is one of the things that I remember from that day as well.

[weeyin]

Cowdenbeath - 2-0 (Graham, Marinello)

 

That Cowdenbeath game sticks in my memory too. It felt like most of Lanarkshire turned up to watch that game.

 

I seem to remember Marinello was on fire that day.

[Catweazles ring piece]

What wonderful memories Grew, that was a side that had it all, guts, flair, finesse and brute force when required.

 

Celtic 3-2 (Pettigrew, Graham, Taylor) - nothing more needs said

 

Cowdenbeath - 2-0 (Graham, Marinello)

 

I think your support estimation is way too low - approaching the 7,500 mark by all accounts - buses were queued all the way from the Halbeath interchange at Dunfermline, into Cowdenbeath that day, remember having to cross a burn from the bus park to the stadium. What always stuck with me was Wullie hitting a shot from approx 8 yards out and it didn't even reach the terracing, such was the gap between the playing surface and track (they had stocks and speedway even then).

 

Hibs (H) - 2-2 (Pettigrew, Marinello) - mind may be playing tricks, but was this the game the Hibs lad got led away with the dart sticking out the side of his nose?

Hibs (A) - 1-1 (Graham)

Hibs (N) - 2-1 (Marinello, Taylor)

 

Not even gonna talk about the semi (JPR Gordon cheating c..t) - yes your right chummy that was the one.

 

 

 

Magic memories as a teenager at those matches.

Throw in The Texaco Cup at the same time and we had something special.

 

I remember the burn at Cowdenbeath and the amount of buses turning up at the car park. For some reason, I was always into the amount of support we took to matches and was counting the supporters buses. I think I gave up that day around 40.

Always remember that the capacity at Cowdenbeath was 10,000 and totally packed with Well fans, with a pocket of Cowdenbeath fans behind one of the goals.

 

Best campaign apart from 91, but cheated beyond belief against JPR and pals.

Best and worst moments watching Motherwell in that cup run, outwith 91.

 

Grew - seem to think that Taylor got the winner in the 2nd Hibs replay at Ibrox. Could be wrong though?

[chummy]

Ahh the texaco cup,,,,,, spurs norwich etc at the citadel.....happy memories

[El Grew]

Thanks guys for filing in the blanks. Aye great memories. It's really funny I remember that self-same burn at Cowdenbeath mainly because on the road out of the ground it was pitch black and I nearly ended up in it.

Aye I don't like to think about the semi-final, JPR Gordon or Derek Johnstone.