Honoured with dignity

Published on Saturday 30 May 2009 20:54

WHEN Craig Gowans died on 8 July 2005, victim of a freak accident on Falkirk's training ground, his family were robbed of a son, the team of a promising young player, and both of their right to enjoy all that he could bring them.

By allowing his father to lead the players out in yesterday's Homecoming Scottish Cup final at Hampden, the club reminded him of how special his boy was, and how much he would have gone on to achieve.

Their manager, John Hughes, said again last night that Craig, 17 when he was electrocuted four years ago, would have been in the side that played Rangers. That was why he had also asked the lad's father to collect a medal, his son's medal, after the match. John Gowans, who had thought long and hard before agreeing to the offer, performed both of his duties with the utmost dignity.

The only pity was that it hadn't been a winner's medal he was handed on the podium, but as Hughes has been stressing these last couple of weeks, there are more important things in life. Neil McCann, the Falkirk winger, said that he and his team-mates had been proud to walk out behind Gowans . "It was a very, very emotional moment," he said. "You know what he has been through. The gaffer had it very close to his heart. We're just sorry that we couldn't bring the cup home, but hopefully we did the man proud."

Gowans did likewise for his son. After shaking hands in the tunnel area with the Rangers captain, David Weir, referee Craig Thomson, and the Rangers manager, Walter Smith, he led Falkirk's players out into the Hampden sunshine, walking where his boy would have walked, feeling what he would have felt. Out in the centre of the pitch, he stood, hands clasped, as the teams took in the scene around them. A nudge by Hughes prompted the next of his jobs, a stroll past the Rangers players, every one of whom accepted the offer of his hand.

Then ushered to his place in the main stand, where he joined his wife, Sheila, daughter Lynsey, and sons Darren and Dean, he sat down to compose himself for a match in which Falkirk let down not a soul, never mind the former team-mate for whom they had hoped to win it. Perhaps conscious of the country's eyes upon them, the family were reserved at first, but it wasn't long before they were rising from their seats on each occasion that the ball ventured into Rangers' box. Which was quite a lot.

In the match programme, a full page was devoted to Gowans, who was described there as Falkirk's 12th Bairn. While Hughes' demand that his team perform in his honour was not motivated by self-interest, it had the potential to impact positively on them. Their deep-thinking manager has long believed that no player can produce his best without relaxing, that his ability to do what he is capable of can only be compromised by fear. On this day, of all days, with stage fright a real possibility, the emotional backdrop lent the underdogs some welcome perspective.

It may have been a coincidence, but they were full of self-belief from the start, not in the least intimidated by their opponents, as they dominated the midfield with quick, confident passing moves. When Tam Scobbie embarrassed Kris Boyd with a neat little dink down by the touchline, there was a roar of approval from the Falkirk support.

Scobbie was one of three men in the Falkirk team who came through the same youth system that should have produced Gowans. In the semi-final, he and Scott Arfield, who were Craig's team-mates, scored the goals that saw off Dunfermline. Arfield, playing wide on the right here, was involved in much of Falkirk's best work during a first half in which the league champions were starved of possession.

The Gowans family must have been proud of the players' efforts when they vacated their seats at half-time, but when they returned to them shortly after the interval, the news was bad. Nacho Novo, on for Boyd, had scored within 30 seconds of the restart, a stunner of a goal, and they hadn't even seen it.

Not that it interrupted Falkirk's rhythm. Hughes' side continued in the same vein, and matched Rangers in every department except finishing, but it was not to be. Hughes had hoped that Gowans would be lifting a trophy come 5pm, but in the end, his services were not required. Falkirk lost a game of football yesterday, but they never lost sight of what mattered.