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Wednesday, 17th March 2010

Field of Memories - PETER O'DONNELL

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Published Date: 07 March 2007
PETER O'DONNELL will forever be remembered as the first ever Back captain to lift the Highland Amateur Cup therefore becoming a club legend, but Peter remarkably began his Lewis football career on the other side of the Broadbay divide with fierce rivals Point in 1990.
His brief but fruitful spell in the Red of the Rudhachs gave POD his first Lewis football medals, but there is no doubt he is best remembered for decade long spell in the Blue of Back.
Peter said: "I moved to Lewis in 1990 for work and the day I arrived on Lewis was a Friday. I got a new house in Vatisker Park and on my way home we passed the pitch at Coll.
"I instantly thought to myself I'll go down there tomorrow and ask for a game. I'd been used to playing on a Saturday on the mainland, but of course they don't in Lewis, so when I went down there was no one there and I assumed they were playing away.
"I ended up meeting the famous 'Tuff' the next week and asked if Back had been playing away that week. His ears perked up and he quickly had me signed up for Point. I was an innocent mainlander and knew nothing of the rivalry and didn't realise I was signing for Back's big rivals."
In Peter's first season with Point the Reds finished runners-up in the Lewis Cup to Back where the Blues star defender Alasdair 'Red' Mackenzie scored twice. Little did Peter know that over the next decade he and Red would form one of the island's most formidable rearguards.
"I spent a highly enjoyable three seasons with Point where I became good friends with guys like 'Tuff', Ross Macleod and George Mackaskill," said Peter.
"I played both at the back or upfront but unfortunately I didn't get too many games ahead of guys like Angus 'Stoodie' Mackay or Ivor Finlayson. So I left midway through 1993. It was a decision I came to regret as later that summer Point won the Highland Amateur Cup and the league.
"It was a bit of a blow as I had played in all the games up to the quarter-finals. Although I was devastated to have missed out on a Highland Amateur Cup medal one of my favourite ever games was with Point. It was the Lewis Cup final of 1991. I was a sub that night and we were playing Ness who were a really top side at that time.
"We were 1 – 0 down when I came on and I managed to equalise with my very first touch. I then scored the winner about five minutes later and became an instant hero.
"I remember the Stornoway Gazette headlines that week dubbed me the 'king of the eye peninsula.'"
As he was living in Back, Peter had been drafted into the Eilean an Fhraoich Cup squad in 1993 and from this a long and hugely successful marriage of player and club began.
During Peter's first season in Blue, they reached the Eilean an Fhraoich Cup semi-final but disastrously lost the first leg to Lochs in their own back-yard at Upper Coll.
Unsurprisingly, Back were given no chance of turning the tie around in the second-leg but Peter helped turn the form book on its head.
He continued: "For the second-leg we had hardly any fans at the game but we turned it around and won 5 – 3. I scored two goals that night which I think were probably the two best I ever scored.
"One was from near the half-way line and the second was a volley into the top corner. I signed for Back full-time the following year and I was in and out of the side for my first two seasons before I finally cemented my place in defence alongside Red. I then spent about ten years in the Back team."
During his decade at the heart of the Back side Peter earned nine winners medals and was also named Players Player of the Year in 2002.
Despite the fact that Back have consistently boasted some of the islands' best players in their ranks, they have found league championships hard to come by, but Peter can count himself among a small member who has earned their place in club history as part of a title winning team.
In 2000 Peter was part of the Back side which travelled down to Tarbert in a final day clash for the league championship. The league hadn't been won by Back for 25 years, but their long wait finally came to an end as they clinched the title on their closest rivals' own patch.
"It was great to win the league with Back in 2000," continued Peter. "There were actually four boys in our team and on the bus whose Dads had been in the Back side which had last win the league in 1975.
"Most of the team from 1975 were also down in Harris with us that night and we had two bus loads of fans."
2003 was another special year for Peter as Back won a treble and the first three cups of the season. Peter also managed the extraordinary feat of lifting trophies as Back skipper for three successive seasons.
But just a year later he and the club went one better as they reached the pinnacle of amateur football in the Highlands when they lifted the Highland Amateur Cup.
On a gloriously sunny day in Dingwall, a youthful Bacach side stormed to the final at Ross County's Victoria Park. The Blues met much-fancied Avoch in the final but a monumental performance from Back saw the game tipped in the Lewis side's favour 2 – 1.
Peter continued: "It really was an amazing experience. I had actually been suffering with tendonitis for some time before the game and was bandaged up tightly inside my boots, but there was no way I was going to miss the game.
"As soon as I made my first run I was in agony and we have since watched the tape and you can see on it my defensive partner, Ross Hall, dragging me by my shirt to take a higher defensive line, as I was struggling to run.
"It was a fantastic day and it is something I am very proud to have achieved."
Peter went on to describe how away trips to the mainland generated many great memories.
"Travelling away to the mainland on Highland Amateur Cup duty was always a fantastic time and there are hundereds of great stories from these trips.
"I remember one such trip way back in the midst of time, where 'Duff' must have thought we were in with a shout, as the club had laid on overnight accommodation to keep us fresh for the match.
"We had the usual pre-boarding lecture on how we were representing the club and to steer clear of the demon drink.
"So there we were sitting on the Sulliven with everyone looking bored reading the Sun for the umpteenth time when our manager 'Bunter' turns round and said 'Right who's for a pint?.'
"The ferry hadn't even turned round yet. I swear we could still see 'Duff' standing outside the Star Inn.
"Needless to say we had a good trip and gubbed the opposition 11-0, so I suppose the moral of the story is that, you can't win the Highland Amateur Cup on pasta and mineral water alone. I'm sure even the Lochies will testify to that."
Over his 15 year long spell in island football, Peter has played with and against some of the most famous – and infamous – names in island football history but for him one player and team stands head and shoulders above the rest.
He added: "The best team I ever played in was the Back team which annihilated Point in the Eilean an Fhraoich Cup final of 2000. Ivor Finlayson scored twice and Kevin 'Bloxy' scored four. It was definitely the best 10 players I ever played alongside and it was a tremendous performance.
"The best player I have ever played with would be 'Red'. He was brilliant and a pleasure to play alongside. The hardest opponent I ever had would be 'Sweeney'.
"He would make a run to the near post and when you would follow him he would quickly take five or six steps back and would suddenly be in acres of space when you turned round. He was like a ghost and you never really knew where he was.
"When I first moved to Back there was a young family next door with a seven or eight year old lad and two younger children including a baby. Well, little did I know that I would end up playing with all three of them in the Back team. That makes me feel really old!"
Peter's football career before moving to Lewis was also eventful but he confesses that one of his biggest football regrets came as a result of youthful exuberance in the presence of a Scottish football legend!
"Before I moved to Lewis, I lived in Greenock and played with Clydeview Thistle. We were doing really well at under 14 level and reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.
"I scored twice in the quarter finals against Middlesbrough under 14s and we were drawn against Celtic in the semi. Despite scoring twice in the previous round I was dropped for the Celtic game and I found myself watching from the sidelines.
"We were about 9 – 0 down when a Jaguar car pulled up and Jock Stein got out and stood on the sidelines to watch right next to me.
"A few minutes later and one of my team mates completely clattered one of their boys and took him right out of the game. I remember shouting 'excellent, give him hell' or something like that.
"Jock Stein turned to me and asked me 'Why are you being like that wee man?'
I simply turned to him and said, 'if you can't get the man, get the ball.'
"Well he sighed and turned away and to this day I can still hear that 'tut'.
I look back now with hindsight and can't believe I said that to Jock Stein."
Last season, Peter took on a role as player-manager of Back and things began promisingly as the Blues reached the first cup final of the season, the ABC Cup final.
However during the game a sickening collision between Peter and his own goalkeeper Colin Macritchie brought his season to an end – and probably brought the curtain down on his football career - as he suffered a double leg break during the game.
The injury was the first of many which blighted the Back season and Peter feels quashed any chance of silverware in 2006.
He revealed: "We had a ridiculous injury list last year with myself, Euan 'Moley', Kevin 'Bloxy', Ross Hall, David Maciver, Murdo 'Gress', Innes Macarthur, Murray Macleod and Billy Anderson all out for most of the season.
"Another problem we had was that most Friday nights now are tied up with Cup Finals or select training which means we now had to play all our games on Mondays and Wednesdays.
"With the juniors playing on Tuesdays and Thursdays we couldn't ask them to play every night, so despite all our injuries we couldn't play too many of the under 18s, or it could have cost them their own league.
"Next year I think Back could do well if they can steer clear of injuries.
If Kevin 'Bloxy' Murray plays then that is a huge boost for them as anyone with him in their team has a chance.
"Back have a solid spine to their team in Colin Macritchie, Euan 'Moley', Iain Macinnes and Kevin 'Bloxy' with the younger guys a year older now all around them.
"I would also like to mention Stevie Macleod who is a great player for Back.
"He is the most important of all the youngsters who have come through. Last year when Back were struggling with injuries, Stevie himself was carrying several knocks, but he never once pulled out of a game and showed fantastic commitment to the team."


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  • Last Updated: 07 March 2007 3:27 PM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Stornoway
 
 
 


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