Jocky Robertson

IN the 1950s, there were two outstanding goalkeepers of diminutive stature who became goal-line giants once a football game commenced. One was Falkirk’s Bert Slater, the other was Third Lanark’s Jocky Robertson, who has died at his Edinburgh home.

Jocky was raised in the same Prestonfield council housing estate as was the Rangers and Scotland captain, John Greig, a generation later, and graduated, like the Ibrox legend, from playing for the local school sides to competing at the highest level.

Despite only being 5ft 5in tall, Robertson’s natural goalkeeping ability led to junior football with Armadale Thistle, where he picked up several Scottish junior international caps.

Like his fellow Edinburgh native Greig, Jocky Robertson was, in his youth, a devoted follower of Gorgie-based Heart of Midlothian FC, so much so that in the 1959 Scottish League Cup final, in which Robertson played outstandingly despite his team, Third Lanark, going down to Hearts by 2-1, he wore a Heart of Midlothian jersey under his Hi-Hi’s goalkeeper’s strip - probably the only time that a goalkeeper has worn the colours of the opposing team, albeit surreptitiously, on the field in a major Hampden Scottish Cup final.

What is even more remarkable is that Robertson injured badly those most precious of tools to a goal guardian - his hands - while working in an Edinburgh cardboard box factory, yet he recovered sufficiently for the then top Glasgow side, Third Lanark, to sign him in December, 1951, when he made his first- team debut - a winning one against Airdrie - for the Cathkin Park side.

For the next 12 years, Cathkin favourite Jocky Robertson gave a special piquancy to that old Scottish saying of "guid gear in sma’ bulk", with a stream of acrobatic saves and sound clutching ability in the six-yard box or wider penalty area.

From 1957, when they returned from a three-year spell in the Second Division, until 1964, Jocky Robertson shone in a Third Lanark side which was one of the finest ever - a Cathkin team which bristled with outfield players of truly stellar ability, such as the forward trio of Alex Harley, David Hilley and Matt Gray.

Yet, it is Jocky Robertson whom I personally remember best in a Scottish Cup quarter-final at Easter Road in March, 1958 against the eventual finalists, Hibs.

Two weeks before, Hibs, thanks to four Joe Baker goals, had destroyed the cup hopes of League champions-elect Hearts at Tynecastle in the previous cup round.

Yet, I will never forget how Jocky Robertson pulled off a stream of great saves from that same four-goal Hibs hero, centre forward Joe Baker, even though the Easter Road side did ultimately win a place in the semi-finals thanks to a 3-2 scoreline.

On several occasions, both the wily Baker and his forward mates tried to capitalise on Jocky’s diminutive stature by lobbing the ball over his head, only for the Third Lanark custodian to pull off a series of acrobatic saves. Nor could Jocky be faulted for the three goals that gave Hibs eventual victory.

Then there were the 1959 Hampden heroics against League Cup final opponents Hearts, when the jersey of his beloved Heart of Midlothian FC that he wore next to his skin on that occasion seemed to act for a time at least as a talisman, a goal-defying good luck charm against the goal-hungry Gorgie Road men, led by centre forward Alex Young, as erstwhile Tynecastle side devotee, Robertson, pulled off first-class save after first-class save before Hearts finally won by 2-1.

He also figured prominently in the league performances of the Third Lanark team, which were one of Scotland’s outstanding football sides in season 1960-61, when they scored a century of goals.

By 1965, Jocky had left Third Lanark and, after a one-year spell with Berwick Rangers, he hung up his goalkeeper’s gloves, although he still earned his daily bread by exercising another kind of tactile skill - at his trade of upholsterer.

Jocky Robertson was predeceased by his wife Mamie, but is fondly remembered by his son, Donny, and his two daughters, Christine and Heather, his six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

He will also be sadly missed by all those privileged to watch the wee man from Prestonfield routinely defy the laws of gravity and opposing forwards with equal nonchalance between 1951-64 for Third Lanark Football Club.