Hundreds turn out to honour Paul Scott

PAUL SCOTT was laid to rest on Saturday as hundreds of friends, relations, and members of the Edinburgh amateur football community paid tribute to "a lovely guy, a one-off, a winner".

The funeral service at Mortonhall Crematorium drew an estimated 500-700 mourners who paid their last respects to the former Newcraighall Leith Vics, Sandys and Danderhall MW player who died in tragic circumstances three weeks ago.

Vics, with whom Paul played the majority of the current season, contested a Centenary Cup fourth-round match against Heriot Vale at the Gyle following the service, forming a guard of honour prior to kick-off and donning black armbands during a 3-0 defeat; a match which marked the keenly-felt absence of their erstwhile left midfielder.

His memory will live on in many forms, including an annual challenge match involving Vics and guest opposition, possibly in the form of Sandys.

"He'll be looking down right now and saying, 'I can't believe what's happening - everyone running around daft for me'," says Paul Scott Snr, father of the player. "His family appreciates everything the community has done. Our neighbours, our work mates - we couldn't ask for any more.

"The funeral stole the show. When I came out the doors, I was overwhelmed with the number of people who turned up."

The life of Paul Jnr may have been cut short, but those who knew him insist he crammed much into his 22 years on and off the football pitch. "He lived life in the fast lane," says Paul Snr of his son. "Everything he did was 150 per cent .?.?."

Paul Raeburn, 45, is behind the plan to launch a yearly tribute game and echoed that description of his lost friend, saying: "He was always on the go - everything 100mph - that was Paul. He didn't think twice about anything. I've known him since he was born and he was very well-liked."

Although he most recently turned out for Danderhall MW, playing the weekend before his death, Paul had a massive impact in half a season at Newcraighall, contributing greatly to the success of a side now second-top of the Lothian and Edinburgh Amateur FA Premier Division 1.

Club chairman Kevin Miller admitted he was a long-time admirer of the former Sandys player before finally persuading him to join Vics.

"I'd been trying to get him for the last two seasons, and it was a joy and a pleasure to have him and to know him," says Miller.