Page 138 - 368603 LP250721 AWY AWY AWY Book (238pp A5)

the bloody hell you are. Anyway from the 1973 team I identified Bobby Kerr, Dennis Tueart, Dick Malone, Vic Halom, Davie Young and maybe Mick Horswill. There were a lot of other ageing-footballer-type faces around but I didn’t know who they were. A piper paraded up and down outside the church and I loved that, though you could see it must be quite an effort to play that instrument. I noticed two dark- skinned guys next to me speaking a language I couldn’t recognise and suspect that they were from Armenia, whose national side Ian had been managing.
Just before half-two the cortege arrived and I followed the bulk of those outside into the church before the family entered; there must have been around a hundred and fifty people there. I took an order of service booklet, which was entitled A Celebration of the Life of Ian John Porterfield 11th February 1946-11th September 2007 and took a seat at the end of a row near the back on the right. It was one of those cloudy-showery days with sunny patches but the interior of the church was bright. I hadn’t expected to get very emotionally involved but when the family entered and walked down the aisle as a recording of Josh Groban singing ‘You Raise me Up’ played, a lot of them were tearful and this got me welling up a bit so that I had to dab my eyes with the one bit of bog-roll I had in my pocket. I’d wondered why Monty wasn’t there but he turned out to be one of the pall- bearers. I felt glad to have Monty there.
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