Two Station Park Legends under one roof!

There will be two ‘Loons’ legends under the one roof at tomorrow’s local derby against Arbroath.

The Athies former captain, manager and record appearance holder Ian McPhee has a party of mainly golfing pals from Perth making their annual sortie to the Hospitality Complex for what is always a memorable day out with a few stories to recount in the aftermath.

However tomorrow one of Ian’s guests will be Jack Coburn, a name perhaps not familiar to younger fans , but that is certainly not the case with those of a certain vintage.

To quote from the club history book produced in our centenary season;-
At the start of the 1960-61 season a young man called Jackie Coburn exploded on to the Second Division scene from Crieff Earngrove.     Jackie delighted the home supporters by netting four times on his debut in a 5-2 win over Brechin City and just a few weeks later netted a hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Stranraer.

In fact during the course of that season when the ‘Loons’ eventually finished second bottom in the nineteen club lower league, Jackie scored 34 of the Station Park side’s 65 league goals, a feat only bettered three times in the club’s history.

Davie Kilgour, local man Willie Black and Ian Rodger were the players who netted more in a season, but in the 55 years since Jackie had that prolific season, no Forfar player has managed to come close to netting a similar number.

The following campaign Jackie netted a further twenty goals as the Athies climbed three places up the league table.

He then moved on to East Stirling who at the time under the stewardship of the Steedman brothers were making a push for Scotland’s top flight.

Jack retired only last year after a 12 year stint as a councillor in Perth and Kinross and it will be a delight to see him back on his old stomping ground tomorrow afternoon.