If they did it for The Queen, why not do it for The King that was Denis Law

Just as when the Queen died, it will always be possible to remember where you were when word came out The King was gone.

Strangely, in this writer’s case, at a Hearts game on both occasions. But while news emerged during the opening half each time, there was a minute’s silence at the start of the second half in one match and not the other.

As well as being unprecedented, I recall thinking that never again will a minute’s silence take place midway through a game, as happened after the teams came out for the second half at the Conference League clash between Hearts and Turkish side Basaksehir following the official announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Denis Law was a legend for Man Utd and Scotland. | Getty Images

And that is probably accurate. It won’t happen again. But it ought to have happened on Friday night, I feel. The death of Denis Law was confirmed at around 7.30pm via an announcement from Manchester United. It was pushing it to expect such a tribute to be put in place before kick-off in the Brechin City v Hearts Scottish Cup tie, particularly given the demands of live TV. But before the second half? If they can do it for the Queen, well, they can do it for the Lawman, particularly in the north-east of Scotland.

The Aberdonian was, after all, Scottish football royalty. He was perhaps the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be. A perhaps appears in that sentence only because Scottish football has also been blessed by Kenny Dalglish.

So, no minute’s silence on Friday, although that’s not to decry the authorities or Brechin City, and there will be plenty of tributes paid before games around the land – as well as in Italy – in the coming days. There have already been many.

Glebe Park was as good a place to be as any on hearing such significant news. In fact, there was no better place. Sitting behind me in the press seats was Ian Gilzean, whose father Alan of course played with Law for Scotland and against him many times for Spurs.

“He always said Law and Greaves were the best he played with,” Ian leaned forward to tell me. Gillie played up front with Law when Scotland beat England 1-0 at Hampden in 1964, Gillie scoring the winner with a soaring trademark header in front of nearly 134,000. West Germany manager Helmut Schon was in the crowd for two reasons: scouting Scotland before a game against them later that year and scouting players for a Rest of Europe team to play Denmark the following month to mark the Danish FA’s 75th anniversary.

Of course Schon picked Law. Of course Law scored in a 4-2 win (with Greaves, with a double, and Eusebio getting the other goals). This is the company Scotland’s only ever Ballon d’Or winner kept.

Scottish football player Denis Law is hugged by a fan after Scotland beat England 3-2 in 1967. | Getty Images

As for the company I was keeping on Friday, I could not complain. Sitting just a few rows back from me and Gillie junior was Jocky Scott, Law’s fellow Aberdonian. “He was my idol,” he said.

Eight years between them, Law had already long departed their home city when Scott started to make some waves, joining Dundee and scoring twice in a derby aged just 16. His style was to play clasping his cuffs and with his shirt hanging outside his shorts. He even adopted the one arm in the air salute after scoring. Well, we all know where that came from. “I couldn’t imitate him as a player,” Scott told me.

Despite growing up in the same city, Scott didn’t meet Law until 1967 in San Francisco of all places. Dundee and Manchester United were both on tour and played each other in California at the height of Flower Power. But Scott wasn’t interested in that guff. He was up against his hero, with Dundee winning 4-2 against a United team featuring the holy trinity of Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best but who were very much in holiday mode.

One imagines Scott might have felt a little too self-conscious to pull the sleeves of his shirt over his hands on that occasion. “I spoke to him at the end,” he said. “Introduced myself as a fellow Aberdonian.”

He met him two or three times in total, he reckons, the last time in Dundee when Law and Best spoke at a dinner event in the late 1990s. Or at least were due to. Best was unwell, as they say, and Law held the room in the palm of his hand alone.

“He was one of the best ever, if not the best,” continued Scott. “He was in my opinion a brilliant all-rounder. Not just as a goalscorer, but in terms of his all-round play. He could mix it too. He could look after himself on the pitch. Not many defenders got the better of him. He was always on the move, always anticipating where the ball was going to be.”

Denis Law celebrates one of his many Man Utd goals. | Getty Images

Scott was informed of Law’s death as he walked up the steps of the Glebe Park main stand. Quaint and attractive though it is, the ground is not one of the cathedrals of the world game. One wonders whether Law ever played there. Although born just 40 or so miles up the road in Aberdeen, probably not is the answer. He played relatively rarely in Scotland, more’s the pity.

Of his 55 caps, 28 were at Hampden. Law’s 30 goals remain a joint record shared with Dalglish but this total is currently being hunted down by John McGinn. It could well be eclipsed before very long.

I think Law would like to have lived to see that. Alas on Friday he was here and then he wasn’t, a feeling defenders once knew all too well.