The Polish Three

[Don van Vliet]

It's really good to see this http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa ... tegoryID=1 on the SFA website. I have fond memories of all three (I was EXTREMELY young at the time) though it was Ziggy's agility in goal that stood out for me (That's the original Ziggy, of course!)

I wonder what other memories are held by followers of this forum?

One thing I can't truly remember is whether their arrival had much of an impact on our fortunes at the time. I'm sure the statos can help with that.

[Whiskeytown]

Before my time but I have many old programmes from that era. I'll dig them out but I'm fairly sure their arrival initially did nothing to change our fortunes, it was the worst Accies side in our history. We did improve the following season but I can't remember if the Poles were still there.

[Stodmeister]

I do remember them albeit a long time ago.

Can't quite remember if they all played every week , seem to think more Alfie Olek more prominent bor maybe the goalie.

I still have some programs in the house from that era.

If I remember right we also played a friendly against Gwardia Warsaw as part of the deal.

http://talksport.com/magazine/features/130531/east-eden-why-poland-now-land-milk-and-honey-scotlands-stars-198680

[saturdaysanny]

The goalkeeper was the one that stood out, what we would now call a good shot stopper, remember him being a bit over weight.

To be fair they were all past their best when they came to accies and results didn't improve, we finished bottom of the old second division, I can still remember the newspaper headline " worst team in Britain " .

It wasn't until Eric Smith took over as manager in December 72 that we started to improve.

[Whiskeytown]

I have a few gaps in my collection from 1971/72 but it looks as though Widolf Szygula and Roman Strzalkowski made their debuts in a 2-6 home defeat by Dumbarton. We then lost the next match by the same score at St Mirren. Alfie Olek seems to have arrived three games later than the other two. The bad run continued - 0-1, 0-3, 0-5, 1-2, 1-5, 1-7 then amazing a 3-0 home win against Brechin. The ship was steadied a little and we got a few more wins but mainly draws before the end & finished as Scotland's worst side. At this time the Hamilton Advertiser's back page was dominated by Motherwell and, would you believe, Airdrie. We barely got a mention. Changed days indeed.

The Brechin win ended a run of 12 straight defeats!

[Alfie Olek]

but it looks as though Widolf Szygula and Roman Strzalkowski made their debuts in a 2-6 home defeat by Dumbarton.

Probably right in terms of competitive debut but their first game for Accies was a hastily arranged mid week friendly against Morton played under the floodlights. I pestered my dad to take me down to the game. Remember being impressed with Mortons' ground compared to Douglas Park. Morton were an established, old first division, club in those days. Cant remember the score but I think we got beat. Happy days

[AlanHutcheson]

Actually things were looking up around that time. Ronnie Simpson arrived at manager to lead a revival. Paul Hegarty came into the team in 71-72, albeit as inside forward and if I remember right we beat Forfar on Christmas Day and then got a decent result against Albion Rovers. Also saw the launch of the new programme, which was a decent read.

[Whiskeytown]

Sorry Alan, Paul Hegarty wasn't signed until the summer of 1972, I've got a programme from early 72/73 welcoming the new boys and he's one of them. Ronnie Simpson took over in October 1971 but things did not pick up for a couple of months, Ronnie lost his first six or seven, then there was a brief revival and we did beat Forfar on Christmas Day and Albion Rovers on New Years. We look to have really tightened up at the back, probably the Polish influence and we carried forward the improvement to the next season where we finished very strongly under Eric Smith, then had a great campaign in 73/74. The programmes from back then, like the team, steadily improve and the revamp in 73/74 saw us have one of the best programmes in Scotland for the next 15 years or so. Changed days!