Ferguson mourns the death of his childhood mentor

SIR Alex Ferguson was last night mourning the death of the man who paved the way for his career in football.

His first coach, John Borland, passed away peacefully at his home in Rutherglan, near Glasgow. He was 92. He became a lifelong hero and friend of Ferguson after he took charge of his local Lifeboys and Boys Brigade teams. And as recently as last week, Sir Alex referred to John as his mentor.

A spokeswoman for Manchester United said: “Sir Alex will be deeply saddened. John was a major influence on his life and he has always held him in deep affection. It wasn’t so long ago that John, his wife Nancy and daughter Margaret came down to a match as guests of Sir Alex.”

Borland inspired Sir Alex as an 11-year-old to win his first trophy in the Govan and District Boys Brigade five-a-side tournament. In a recent interview, Borland told how he had to give the young Ferguson a half-time scolding in the final for missing a string of scoring chances. Ferguson responded by netting the winning goal.

Sir Alex wrote in his autobiography: “John Borland was one of the biggest influences on my earlier life. He was an absolute fanatic for the game. When we went to camp we were given a list of everything we had to bring with us and at the bottom, in big capital letters, he’d put: AND FOOTBALL BOOTS’.

“As soon as we arrived it would be, ‘right, everybody, get your boots on’. They were a size or two bigger when our 129th BB group won the Glasgow and District Cup.”

The funeral is at Stonelaw Parish Church, Rutherglen, on Monday at 1pm.