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The Sublime Genius Of Ronnie Glavin


The Sunnylaw Jag
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I remember as a young kid (around 1976) seeing Ronnie score a 25 yard free-kick for Celtic against us at Parkhead. Was there that day with my Selik supporting uncle and sneaked in my Jags scarf before proudly putting it on right in the middle of the Jungle (the natives weren't happy).

 

I remember seeing Ronnie scoring the same free-kick against the East End ugly sister at Firhill in 1974.

 

And for good measure he slid in another one later in the afternoon for a 2-0 victory.

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"Right-half" in old money (and numbers). A brilliant attacking midfielder. A Partick Thistle hero and legend.

 

By the 1960s some numbers were starting to become meaningless - 2 and 3 were always fullbacks, 5 always centre half and 9 always centre forward and 7/11 nearly always winger. 4 or 6 could be midfield, 8 or 10 could be second forward, and even one of the wingers, if a 4-3-3- system was used could be moreof a midfield player than a winger. As we moved into the late 70s with 4-4-2 becoming popular 7 and 11 could be just wide midfield and not real wingers - and gradually the old meaning of hese numbers died out (our best winger at the moment wears 23).

 

Of course originally (before the 30s) these numbers had a different meaning from the 30s-60s with 2 and 3 actually being the centre backs (what full back meant) and wing halves being a kind of wide defensive midfielder playing wide of a central defensive midfield player - the centre half (giving you 4-5-6). People used to talk about "attacking centre halfs" in these days which suggests something like the old libero who could burst out from defensive areas to join in the attack. I think the wing-halves didn't do this so much as wingers stuck to the wide position so much more then but they no doubt provided an outball for them if they needed one.

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Well my 'HOW TO PLAY SOCCER' book by Ronnie Glavin arrived today and indeed there is only one Ronnie Glavin. The disconcerting thing is that you don't get to use a ball until page 37, perhaps sums up the British mentality to football then. However, the opening sentences do give some clues as to what Thistle are doing wrong; " Soccer is really a very basic game. The two main objectives are to score your own goals and prevent the opposition from scoring."

There are no pictures of Ronnie in action in the book nor does he mention Roughie in the goalkeeping section. I do hope to put into practice all that Ronnie teaches in the book and maybe in ten years time I might get a game with an over 60's team.

Edited by The Sunnylaw Jag
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Well my 'HOW TO PLAY SOCCER' book by Ronnie Glavin arrived today and indeed there is only one Ronnie Glavin. The disconcerting thing is that you don't get to use a ball until page 37, perhaps sums up the British mentality to football then. However, the opening sentences do give some clues as to what Thistle are doing wrong; " Soccer is really a very basic game. The two main objectives are to score your own goals and prevent the opposition from scoring."

There are no pictures of Ronnie in action in the book nor does he mention Roughie in the goalkeeping section. I do hope to put into practice all that Ronnie teaches in the book and maybe in ten years time I might get a game with an over 60's team.

 

Sounds like an excellent buy!….

 

Any photos of anybody? Presumably there are at least some drawings of traffic cones or whatever.

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