Fife bid for monument to football legends Willie Johnston and Willie Mathieson

Cardenden local Scott Carr hopes he can raise the funds to honour Rangers’ legendary European Cup Winners Cup winning duo Willie Johnston and Willie Mathieson with a permanent tribute.

The pair both starred for the club during the 1960s and 1970s, and were part of the team that won the 1972 trophy against Dynamo Moscow at Barcelona’s Camp Nou Stadium.

The two originally hailed from the Fife mining village, and Mathieson and Johnston continued to live in Cardenden at the start of their football careers, taking the train to Glasgow and collecting Jim Baxter on the way at Inverkeithing. Both have since returned to the Kingdom - with Johnston now based in Kirkcaldy and Mathieson in Auchterarder.

Scott hopes to raise £12,000 for the monument, but discussions only came about after a chance encounter with the former Rangers star affectionately known as Bud.

He said: “It was actually a conversation that took place with Willie n a pub in Cardenden. Up the road we’ve got the John Thompson football pitch in memory of the Celtic goalkeeper, so I asked the question ‘why isn’t there anything for you?’

“He said someone tried to do something years ago but nothing came of it, and pointed out that Willie Mathieson was from Cardenden as well.”

That led Scott to inquire with Fife Council and Rangers about the possibility of getting a permanent monument in place.

He explained: “The funny thing is, I’ve sent emails to Rangers about season tickets and that type of thing before and not had any reply. But with this, within 48 hours I had Willie Mathieson on the phone to me, which was quite strange!”

Discussions have since taken place with sculptors who have provided him with three designs.

Scott said: “I went to Senga Murray who is an artist in Glasgow – she painted the Blue Room at Ibrox – and she put me in touch with Andy Scott who designed the Kelpies. I was hoping he’d get involved because the publicity would have been great but he was a bit out of my budget.

“He did put us in touch with a couple of sculptors in Edinburgh and through that I met a third. So after meeting all of them, we put our heads together to see what we could do. We now have three options available, and depending on how much funding is raised we can do the lower end, the middle end or the top end.”

And Scott already has his eyes on a site for the statue of the two Ibrox legends.

He explained: “There’s a place in Cardenden that we have our eye on. Because it’s on the main street it would be really visible.

“Apparently back in the day there was a big oak tree, where, if there was an announcement from the pits, people would gather round. It’s been replaced by a bronze sculpture now. There's a bit of space next to it that would fit it perfectly”.

Scott’s fundraising page can be found here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/monument-for-johnston-mathieson