Glad to hear that Billy Abercromby has his life back together

May 3 2009

I'M thrilled St Mirren legend Billy Abercromby has got his life back together after years of battling his demons.

Aber will live in the hearts of the fans forever as he was the last Buddies skipper to lift the Scottish Cup.

And punters turned up in their droves to witness the launch of his autobiography at new St Mirren Park recently.

"Aber's Gonnae Get Yi!" is an appropriate title because the North Bank supporters chanted that all the time as his hard man reputation spread throughout Scotland.

The book talks openly and honestly about Billy's battle with alcoholism and reveals how close he was to death.

Reading his hard-hitting life story was a humbling experience as Aber quoted from some of my columns.

I've written about him many times over the years and Billy reckons my comments were a fair account of how he was perceived on the pitch.

Billy was Buddies captain when I first met him in 1987 but it wasn't until a few years later that I really got to know him. I had left for Dunfermline and couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted the bold Aber sitting in Jim Leishman's office.

He was there to sign a deal and went on to produce some of his finest displays for big Leish and Iain Munro.

With Aber's steel added to the side, the Pars sat proudly at the top of the Premier League for a short spell and rubbed shoulders with Rangers in the League Cup semis during a superb run.

Sadly, that semi-final signalled the beginning of the end for Billy's career at Pars.

He picked up an injury in our 5-0 defeat and was never the same player in a black and white jersey.

I used to travel with him to Fife in those days and Billy would pick me up in his brand new Nissan Coupe.

My job on those trips was holding his coffee mug and making sure I didn't spill a drop on his shiny new seats.

Thankfully, I wasn't holding a steaming cup when a deep-sea diver smashed in to the back of Aber's pride and joy on the Forth Road Bridge.

Billy talks about the incident in his book but my memory of that night is a bit more vivid.

A mad deep-sea diver did smash in to the back of the car - that much is true.

But what Billy failed to mention in his autobiography was the excuse he gave.

The diver claimed he fell asleep at the wheel and Aber's reply was priceless.

"Fell asleep at the wheel?" he raged. "You must still have bubbles in your brain ya f****** eejit because you just paid at the tollbooth fifteen seconds ago." Every time we crossed the bridge after that we would sing Chris Rea's Road To Hell in an even deeper voice than the pop star himself.

Billy was to travel down his own road to hell many years later but he can now ditch that depressing song and chant Elton John's I'm Still Standing.

I had a great laugh with Billy on our trips and if he had a drink problem Aber hid it extremely well.

One of the nights I do remember seeing him have a good swally was a Christmas party with Dunfermline.

It was a fancy dress do and we shared a room at the King Malcolm hotel instead of heading back west.

I dressed up as Robin and the bold Billy hired a convict's outfit as we strolled around Lorenzo's nightclub bumping in to other Pars players.

Billy was on the Diamond Blush cider but the closest I came to drinking in those days was a can of Top Deck shandy.

That was easily enough to get me gibbering like a budgie.

Meanwhile, good luck to the nominees for this year's PFA Scotland Player of the Year bash in Glasgow.

The awards used to be a real rabble but they have now turned it into a five-star event.

And PFA Scotland gurus Warren Hawke and Fraser Wishart, plus sponsors Cheque Centre, deserve praise for the transformation.

I would love to see Kevin "Dinky" Rutkiewicz from St Johnstone lift the honours for the First Division - but I think Queen of the South striker Stephen Dobbie will have something to say about that.

Ayr's Brian Prunty is my favourite for the Second Division prize as his goals have played a key role in their promotion push.

And I hope Stenny's Kevin Motion cleans up in the Third Division. The midfielder has weighed in with some vital goals and deserves recognition for an excellent season.

However, the Manager of the Year award is the one I'm paying most attention to.

And there's only one winner for me - my good mate and old gaffer Derek McInnes.

Del and assistant manager Tony Docherty have been magnificent for St Johnstone and could take the SPL by storm next season.

Let's just hope they're not the first football folk to catch this Swine Flu while they celebrate their success.

However, given the amount of pigs they were seen with during their early teenage years, I wouldn't hold my breath. Good luck to all the nominees. '