East Kilbride Thistle Junior Cup hero helps walking football team savour Spanish Masters success

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Players from East Kilbride Gerihatricks are celebrating after enjoying Spanish Masters success in sunny Salou earlier this month.The town’s walking football team took on sides from across Europe in searing heat, but kept the cool to be crowned champions in the over-65s’ section of the tournament.EK’s squad of nine included former EK Thistle star and 1983 Junior Cup hero Joe Reilly, alongside Jim Hewitt, Richard Kerrigan, Richard Gibson, Alan McKinney, James Sproul, Kevin Rush, Pat Watters and Grahame Kerr.In a league format they topped the table by four points, winning seven games and drawing three.

Their strong performance in all areas of the park resulted in the team scoring 12 goals, with only one conceded which came from the penalty spot.EK Gerihatrick’s triumph also comes as the team prepare to celebrate their 10th anniversary later this year.

And player Richard Gibson said: “We loved it. Some of us have played football in the past but we never expected to come away from Spain with the trophy."It was superb and we had a great social time as well.We had a great welcome back from all the other EK Gerihatricks members when we got home.

It wasn’t quite an open-top bus parade, but we got a great reception at our hub at Kirktonholme.“The team were fair chuffed to have played strongly as a well-disciplined team throughout the competition.