BRIAN MAKES THE MORGANS MIGHTY; Builder creates new home for his beloved club.Byline: EUAN MCLEAN BRIAN McNICOLL put his building business on hold for three months to work on a new home for his football team. He was too scared to tell wife Sheila...but she knows now. Brian is regarded a hero at Morgan Amateurs in Dundee for his selfless devotion that turned two derelict derelict n. something or someone who is abandoned, such as a ship left to drift at sea or a homeless person ignored by family and society. (See: abandon, dereliction) DERELICT, common law. shops into a club pavilion that puts many senior teams to shame. Now the 59-year-old's efforts have been recognised with a Sunday Mail Sports Awards nomination. To Brian, a former pro footballer with Brechin City and East Fife East Fife may refer to:
0141 Brought to you in association with sportscotland, we will be honouring the nation's biggest sporting success stories of 2009 and want your help to decide the winners. This isn't just about recognising the household names like Andy Murray, Catriona Matthew Catriona Matthew (née Lambert) (born 25 August 1969) is a Scottish professional golfer who plays mainly on the U.S. based LPGA Tour and is also a member of the Ladies European Tour. and John Higgins This article is about the snooker player; for other people named John Higgins, see John Higgins (disambiguation). John Higgins (born May 18 1975, Wishaw, North Lanarkshire) is a Scottish professional snooker player. who did us proud on the world stage. It's also a chance to pay tribute to the people who give everything to sport and ask for nothing in return - people like Brian, who has been manager of the Morgan side for the last four years. He said: "Unlike many amateur clubs we don't pay our players to turn out so we realised that we had to find some other way of attracting new talent. "That meant offering something that other teams didn't have and I drew on the memories from my own playing days to focus on the importance of having good facilities. "I've been to some pretty grim places over the years. There was one junior club in Carnoustie that used to burn their old football boots in the boiler to get enough power for a warm shower after the game. "The water was hot enough but the smell was terrible! "We worked with the council to get a lease on two derelict shops near our park and converted them. "We did everything inhouse. We have a solicitor and a surveyor in the team and other players mucked in with the labouring while I managed the project. "I took three months off my work, though my wife thought I was being paid to do it because she'd have gone mental. "To me it wasn't a big sacrifice. I had a health scare a couple of years ago which changed my perspective and made me realise some things are more important. "Just working on this with my brother Jim James Gilles (b. 1962), better known as Jim Gilles or more commonly Brother Jim, is an American evangelist whose ministry is concentrated on college campuses, particularly in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and surrounding areas. proved the point. He lost his wife Liz to cancer five months ago and I think this project was one of the things that helped him get through it." "The project was finished last week and we now have two changing rooms
"We hope to open the club to the wider community as well, so that young people and pensioners groups can use the place." Our Sports Awards will be presented at a glittering ceremony in Glasgow's Hilton Hotel on December 3. For more info on Brian's team, see www.mightymorgan.co.uk CAPTION(S): Hero: Brian and grandson Lewis, four, in clubhouse and how it looked, inset |
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