GLF 67:Christopher sets the scene for this special issue.
Let's honour Phil on the park with a season to remember
Over nearly quarter of a century of watching Motherwell at Fir Park I've witnessed many, many things and accepted it as part of being a 'Well fan that the only thing to expect is the unexpected.What happened on the 29th of December was the most incomprehensible and stunning event imaginable and even this length of time on it is still difficult to think back to and understand how a husband and father could go out to play a game of football and never return back to his family.
R.I.P Uncle Phil
As you can imagine, this issue contains lots of memories and comment on Phil O'Donnell and there isn't really much more I can add to it here that hasn't already been said over the last six weeks or so.The silence that descended over our stadium as our captain lay on the pitch was sadly an indication of what we had just witnessed and turned an afternoon where the team had served up a simply sensational performance into an evening where goals, wins and league tables were put into perspective as the news sunk in.
My own personal memory of Phil was meeting him to do an interview for GLF (an extract of which you'll find later in this issue).As those who know me would confirm, I am pretty shy and retiring and as a result have never really pushed for interviews for the fanzine (which includes a short telephone conversation with Miodrag Krivokapic which I didn't convert into a face to face meeting?!?!).Yet in April 1992, less than a year after helping us win the Scottish Cup, he agreed to visit Taylor High School in New Stevenston to be interviewed by an eighteen-year-old and as you would expect he was as lovely a guy then as all the tributes have confirmed.He sat and answered all my daft questions, signed all the stuff I brought with me and posed for numerous photos without a moan or glance at his watch.Part of me has always shied away from meeting my heroes as more often than not the reality is usually a massive letdown from the pedestal you put these people on and this is one reason why this is the only interview I ever have and possibly ever will do for the fanzine.The biggest compliment I can pay is that through my dealings with him, Phil O'Donnell lived up to his reputation both on and off the pitch.
Life Must Go On
Understandably, it's difficult but the games are lining up and our thoughts slowly turn back to the next ninety minutes of football.Hopefully you feel this issue strikes the right chord and balance and whilst it will never make up for our loss, hopefully the last issue of the season will be celebrating a big Cup Run and/or push for Europe in Phil's memory.
Love 'n' stuff
Christopher Hutton
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