Mike's been the man for 50 seasons
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FIFTY seasons with the same club is the boast Mike Christie can make to the football world.
The Elgin Boys’ Club stalwart has coached youngsters who went on to play for some of Scotland’s top teams during his half century of duty.
He has taken part in tours across Europe and America, helped play host to the greatest managers in the game and been presented with a club award by Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish.
Mike (77) has watched thousands of budding young Moray footballers kick a ball at Morriston over the years, and says the sporting nature of play has been as enjoyable to him as watching good football.
"The sportsmanship of Elgin Boys’ Club is why it has run so long, and I’ve really enjoyed being a part of it," he said.
"Meeting so many people, the parents and grandparents of the boys has been marvellous, and it has always been a well supported club."
Now the club’s honorary president, Mike’s time at Elgin Boys began in March, 1966. It was the year when England won the World Cup, coached by Sir Alf Ramsay who some 14 years later came to Elgin to present the club’s trophies at their prize-giving night.
Another managing great, Sir Alex Ferguson, also handed over the awards in Elgin Town Hall one season when he was boss at Aberdeen.
On recalling how he first joined the club, Mike said: "I was working with Sandy McConachie at the time and he asked me to come down and take a team," Mike recalled. "I managed Corinthians B for the next 22-and-a-half years."
He was involved in three club tours of Europe, involving matches at major venues including the stadiums of PSV Eindhoven and Borussia Moenchengladbach. Another Euro venture saw the club’s select visit Elgin’s twin town of Landshut in Germany, where they represented Scotland in a 12-team tourney involving sides from across Europe and won the competition unbeaten.
When Elgin Boys’ Club product Steve ‘Pele’ Paterson went on to sign for Manchester United as a teenager, their manager of the time was Tommy Docherty and he invited the club to play in a tournament at the Red Devils’ training facility, which Mike was involved in.
"We also played in a massive tournament organised by Celtic, and were invited because their boys’ club visited Elgin on three or four occasions," he said.
Elgin Boys’ Club missed out on a chance to play in the finals at Celtic Park but won the Jock Stein sportsmanship award, which Mike collected on the club’s behalf and was presented to him by Kenny Dalglish, who was a Celtic player at the time.
Mike, a goalkeeper during his own playing career, personally coached future stars Nicky Walker and Alan Main and took great pride when both went on to play at the highest level in the country.
Other players who came under his wing, included striker John Clayton, who played for a number of English and Dutch league clubs, and Duncan Davidson who starred for Aberdeen in the Premier League.
Before joining the club, Mike played Highland League for Keith and Islavale as a teenager, signed up for the Scots Guards and played in goal for the British Army team against the RAF.
When based in England, he had a three-year spell at West Bromwich Albion and on his return north he played for and managed a number of junior clubs, most successfully with Burghead Thistle.
During his Elgin Boys’ Club years he has also coached youth teams for Lossiemouth, Lossiemouth United, Keith, Forres, Fochabers and Elgin City, and also served the Borough Briggs club as a first team coach and trainer.
But his greatest love has always been Elgin Boys’ Club, who he has also served as a committee member, referee and groundsman.
"Nowadays I’m struggling to get about the same, but I’ve got a wee buggy which gets me up and down the parks.
"I don’t coach now it’s just administration things, taking the results and making up the league tables and doing reports on the players."
The club has around 35 match nights each season and Mike believes he has missed just three in the past 25 years. He has also missed just two club AGMs in 50 years, once when he was in hospital getting knee surgery.
