Some
quotes from the book Greenock Morton 1874-1999 by
Vincent P Gillen
" Andy Ritchie-I can close my eyes and see the
day as clear as you like. Morton were getting a doing
by dundee utd and the defence was under siege. Big
Andy was standing at the centre circle, hands inside
his shirt sleeves, looking at the seagulls, bored
out of his skull, when Davie Hayes blootered the ball
out - it was just Andy and david Hegarty left, and
Andy, you couldn't slip a copy of the Greenock Telegraph
under his feet when he jumped.
Hegarty jumped and missed and Ritchie did what Pele
couldn't do and volleyed the ball past Hamish from
the half way line!
Andy was the epitome of the Scottish footballer -
fat, lazy, b...... but with great ball skill."
- Chic Young
"Big Andy was always full of the verbal - always
had a smile on his face, especially when he nutmegged
you. I think in fact with the goal he scored in the
scottish Cup, players were always that terrified of
Andy nutmegging them that thay would shut their legs
and he curled it roon them , you know.
He had such a good footballing brain that he sussed
things like that. He had scored the one from 50 yards
and he was in his own half, nobody near him and he
shouted "Big Yin, ye'd better pick me up, I'll
probably score from here- your talking 60-70 yards
and I was thinking, he's got a point, I better get
across. He was the scourge of the Dons in those days."
- Alex McLeish
"Richie came at the right time - he was the
cream at the top of the cake at the time...he got
the label of being a lazy player and he nurtured that
a little bit... I used to train him on his own, he
trained hard. He was a character, his skills were
unbelievable, his passing, his vision, his dead ball
situations..there was a free kick at a preseason game,
we had a wee thing with Watford at the time...and
they came about three seasons in a row. I can always
remember this one game, Andy had a free kick just
over the centre circle...they don't put a wall up
or anything and Mick (Jackson) says, it was his first
game, "He's not going to shoot from there"
, just leave him I says, he hits the ball in the roof
of the net...he was that good" - Benny
Rooney
Previous |
