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Phil O'donnell


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3 years today since Phil passed away. Still in our minds. Sorry edit made

 

It's amazing how the time flashes by Jim.

 

The images from that game are fresh in my mind and will never ever fade I suspect. As they won't I suspect to everyone else who was there.

 

My heart goes out as always to his family - What a huge loss someone like Phil must be.

 

I also feel for everyone who was involved with the club at the time. The management team, the staff and the players.

 

At the same time I remember Phil the player and the man. What a privelege it was to watch him in the two spells at the club.

 

There is only one Phil O'Donnell

 

Rest easy sir!

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I realised today that I have been working every December the 29th since Phil die and I now decided to make sure I'm not working next year so I can do 10 for 10 (assuming it will be run next year)

 

gone but never forgot

 

RIP uncle Phil

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Couldn't find this anywhere but even if it is then its worthwhile

 

http://www.tributetophil.com/

 

Trek Cotopaxi is an ambitious project where 12 men will spend 10 days trekking Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador in an attempt to raise £100,000 in memory of Phil O’Donnell for the British Heart Foundation. The trek is scheduled to take place during summer 2011 and training has already begun.

 

The trek is being attempted by Phil's friends and previous teammates at Motherwell FC and Celtic FC. Those undertaking the challenge are Simon Donnelly, Jackie McNamara, Kenny Crichton, Alan Archibald, Willie Kinniburgh, Greg Anderson, Darren Jackson, Ross Anderson, Craig Hinchcliffe, David Rowson, Jim Patterson and Bill Leckie, with support and assistance from Martyn Corrigan, Phil Scott and Martyn Hamilton.

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Couldn't find this anywhere but even if it is then its worthwhile

 

http://www.tributetophil.com/

 

Trek Cotopaxi is an ambitious project where 12 men will spend 10 days trekking Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador in an attempt to raise £100,000 in memory of Phil O’Donnell for the British Heart Foundation. The trek is scheduled to take place during summer 2011 and training has already begun.

 

The trek is being attempted by Phil's friends and previous teammates at Motherwell FC and Celtic FC. Those undertaking the challenge are Simon Donnelly, Jackie McNamara, Kenny Crichton, Alan Archibald, Willie Kinniburgh, Greg Anderson, Darren Jackson, Ross Anderson, Craig Hinchcliffe, David Rowson, Jim Patterson and Bill Leckie, with support and assistance from Martyn Corrigan, Phil Scott and Martyn Hamilton.

 

Dont ever see the Scottish papers and haven't seen this mentioned before. Maybe should have its own thread and be pinned for a while so people can donate/sponsor.

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Dont ever see the Scottish papers and haven't seen this mentioned before. Maybe should have its own thread and be pinned for a while so people can donate/sponsor.

 

That's a good idea.

 

 

Three years gone already. Receiving the text with that news is still vivid in the mind.

 

 

Some of you guys will know the family. Are his wife and children doing ok?

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  • 4 years later...

This was in The Sun at the weekend...

 

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/6814611/I-never-wanted-to-be-the-face-of-Motherwell-after-Phil-diedI-wanted-to-be-invisible.html

 

 

 

Mark McGhee: I never wanted to be the face of Motherwell after Phil died

By KENNY MacDONALD
published 06:57, 20 Dec 2015
comments
MARK McGHEE was rolling back the years. And holding back the tears.
We’re sitting in his Fir Park office, discussing the events of December 29, 2007. Specifically, the phone call he took around 5.45pm that Saturday evening.
The phone call that changed everything. The call that told him one of his players, his captain Phil O’Donnell, had died.
The Motherwell manager recalled: “I was sitting in this chair, at this desk.” He points at me on the other side of it.
“Craig Levein was where you are, physio John Porteous was there, Peter Houston and Scott Leitch were over there when the phone rang.
“It was Linda Blair, who was our head of security at the time. She told me they’d had word from Wishaw General Hospital that Phil had passed away. That’s how I found out.
“The first person I passed it on to was John, because he had known Phil for a long time. But after that we didn’t really say anything, we were all speechless.
“For a minute or two we all sat, not being able to believe it.”
O’Donnell’s death at the age of 35 from cardiac arrest during a game against Dundee United eight years ago next weekend sent shock waves reverberating through football.
Well’s next two matches were postponed, as was the New Year Old Firm meeting.
Down south, flags at Hillsborough — home of his former club Sheffield Wednesday — were flown at half-mast and all Premier League New Year games were preceded by a minute’s applause or silence.
James McFadden dedicated his goal in Everton’s New Year’s Day win at Middlesbrough to the Well legend.
Here, McGhee was turning over the prospect of a media blitz as he endured a long, sleepless night.
He said: “There wasn’t a big announcement because the players had left. They got to know through David Clarkson, Phil’s nephew.
“A couple of them had gone up to the hospital and word spread when the news came through.
“I was living in a flat in the West End of Glasgow and I was up most of the night.
“The weird thing I remember is I went to bed with the curtains open. I don’t know why, I just didn’t want to close them. But I didn’t sleep a lot, anyway.
“Two things were happening — I was reliving the whole scene that had unravelled on the park and then clearing my mind for the morning, because I knew I was going to have to address people and probably deal with the media.
“I was sorting out my own thoughts about how to approach it.
“So I stayed up most of the night thinking about that.
“Chairman John Boyle was in Australia and wasn’t really in the loop, so I decided to take control of whatever we were going to do.
“I called a meeting at the club — players, staff, everyone — on the Sunday morning and I asked Jimmy Martin, the club chaplain, to be prepared to say a few words.
“When I’d been at Millwall, my assistant Ray Harford had taken ill with cancer and died quite suddenly — but these were different circumstances.
“The crux of what I said on the Sunday morning was about us finding justification for going on, for going out again and playing, going out and training and celebrating a goal and not feeling all that had to stop because of Phil’s death, or that by doing those things we’d be disrespecting him.
“We were all going to be affected by it for a long time and we’d remember him forever. I didn’t want it to sound cliched but playing games and scoring goals IS what Phil would’ve wanted us to do.
“If Phil had still been there and it had happened to someone else, he would’ve gone out and played and scored and celebrated goals.
“But he’d have done it with the dignity and absolute respect for the guy we’d lost.
“What I wanted the players to do was to be allowed to play well and score a goal and work hard.
“To me, that was better than not playing again or not thinking we could play again.
“Then Jimmy spoke. I felt it was appropriate he came in because Phil’s family were quite religious and had strong faith but I was nervous.
“Jimmy was quite old and I was anxious about what he’d say, that he’d go on too long or say something that wasn’t what I was thinking.
“But he said a prayer and it was magnificent, just fantastic, considering it was at such short notice.
“Phil’s death shocked the players, the permanency of it. For a lot of them it was their first experience of losing someone as young as them or as close to them as Phil was.
“Jimmy spoke to one or two of them after it. One person who was very important was John Porteous.
“He was that bit older, but he’d known Phil intimately since he was a kid. He was very affected by it but was a great confidant for the players, providing a bit of counsel for them.”
Having gone through the arduous process of dealing with his staff, McGhee had to take responsibility for being the public face of the club at a desperate time.
Although he received widespread praise for the dignity he showed, it wasn’t a role he was comfortable in.
McGhee added: “I had to go and do all the TV and the press and I almost felt I wanted to do it from behind a screen.
“I wanted to take control because I didn’t trust anyone else to do it on our behalf. I didn’t want anyone saying something that wouldn’t have been right but I only wanted the words to get out, not for my part to have any significance.
“Being the public face wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to be invisible. It was a balance of being sensitive and sympathetic to Phil’s family but, at the same time, letting people know how strongly we were feeling.
“Let’s not kid ourselves; these things are different for family than for us, as Phil’s colleagues.
“But we all had such respect for Phil. I had worked with him from the start of that season till December, got to know him a little and liked him a lot. He was a model pro and all-round good guy.
“Every year at this time I think of him, wonder if it could have been different.
“It is still dreadful and I wonder how his wee family are.
“In the next few days I will ask Clarky how they are doing. He is here and it’s good that connection exists.”
Lads needed a Cup lift
MARK McGHEE and Scott Leitch had tried their best.
But as their Motherwell side trooped off the pitch at half-time against Hearts on January 12, 2008, they knew they’d FAILED.
It was half-time in Well’s first game after the death of O’Donnell.
The Scottish Cup fourth-round tie wasn’t going to plan. Motherwell had a groundswell of support and even the home club’s programme — now a collector’s item — had O’Donnell’s image on the front.
Deividas Cesnauskis’ early goal had given a dominant Hearts side the edge, so McGhee got to work.
He recalled: “We’d told them in training they had to lift themselves but in that first half you could see there was still a cloud over them.
“But we managed to shake it out of them and reinforce the message I’d given them immediately after Phil’s death. They went out and it looked as though they’d got it off their backs.”
Although Hearts went 2-0 ahead, a Chris Porter double earned Well a home replay, which they won, but McGhee’s memories of the day are clouded by a fog of emotion.
He said: “We got back to 2-2 but I couldn’t tell you who scored.
“I don’t remember much about the game because I was just so overwhelmed — not by wanting to win, but by the desire to help them believe they had the right to go out and play well and do themselves justice.
“They did that in the second half and then we won the replay.
“The solidarity the general public, as well as the football world, showed us was staggering.
“The floral tributes outside Fir Park were amazing.”
My memories..his laugh
No 10 shirt
O'Donnell No10 shirt
THE footage is seldom seen. Entirely understandably, the goals from Well’s game against Dundee United when Phil O’Donnell collapsed and died on the Fir Park pitch are rarely shown on TV.
But Mark McGhee remembers the match — and his last memory of his tragic captain.
Motherwell romped to a 5-3 win and McGhee said: “One of the impressions I had of the game was how well we had played. My last memory of Phil is after our fifth goal.
“Clarky scored with a sublime chip over the keeper and the players all ran over into the far corner of the pitch to celebrate.
“Phil, being the elder statesman, didn’t bother running over with them — he headed back to the halfway line.
“The goal had been an audacious chip from an acute angle and I remember Phil looking across at me, shaking his head and laughing.
“It had been a great goal, it was his nephew, it had put us 5-1 ahead and the impression I got was that he was enjoying it so much.
“It was one of those days when we played some great stuff — as well as we’d ever played. The goals were superb.
“I can’t remember if it was shown on TV after what happened. It certainly took us a long time to be able to watch it.
“But that’s the last impression I have of him — a guy enjoying his team playing well.
“At the end of that season, I bought all the staff a watch, which I still wear.
“I just felt everyone had been through something and should have some tangible memory of it.”
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Do we have to do something every year?

 

Maybe leave it until the 10th aniversary or something,

Was thinking the same. It's a free country and all that, but there's a fine line between showing some respect for the man and going full on Diana.

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There's a lot in there that I don't think a younger, modern manager like a Baraclough type just wouldn't "get" - like buying watches for the players. I think small touches like that can make a difference

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