'Death and Resurrection' really is a book of two halves. The first section of the book is written by Bankies supporter / Director, David Munro, the man who was forced to sign over shares in the Bankies to Mr. Ballantyne last summer. David had to report from the time of the Steedman sellout through to the current rebranding as a Junior outfit and, as one would expect, he fails to hide his bitterness at the whole situation and the characters he believes, for use of a better word, screwed them. I'm sure the Airdrie people involved would rather have had the chance to put their side of events too. For me it was interesting to see just what they went through for all those years. The Bankie's story is a truly tragic one considering their standing of less than a decade ago. I for one have fond memories of Kilbowie Park (and their nearby cells - Doh) and who can forget some of our 'shared' legends? Owen Coyle, Ken Eadie, Stuart Auld :), Paul Harvey, Kenny Brannigan :), Jamie Fairlie, Jolly Rodger, John Davies, Graham Hay and Gowser, to name but a few. Bankies are missed, pity that our club had to be the one involved:(

The Airdrieonians / Airdrie United section was written by Jim Milton and includes several photos by Bob Dalzell (whose photo album is regularly linked from this site). Jim, as usual, constructs an informative and entertaining read just like Bankies section, from the time of the stadium construction, through the first temporary liquidation to the Murray enforced final liquidation, all the way to that final, fateful Mayday 2002, then onto Airdrie United. It won't educate the majority of our fans as it should mostly be common knowledge, but in years to come the book will be a great reminder and keepsake of our traumatic time, and hopefully an inspiration to never let the likes of that happen again. As I may have mentioned earlier, the book will make and interesting read and keepsake, and may be just the ticket as an Xmas present for an Airdrie fan out there. Even my mother-in-law liked it, but that's probably due the picture of Hendy's buttocks.

My own interpretation after reading the book is that one major event determined the fates of Clydebank and Airdrie. Our Directors, for all their faults, greed (?), mismanagement (?), deception (?), whatever, built a stadium, but essentially made a pigs ear of tieing it up. Clydebank's stadium was sold, and the majority of the proceeds were withdrawn leaving them high and dry, and homeless (assetless). We were taken advantage of and had to fight for our rights essentially by ourselves as our board had gone and the liquidator didn't have our (fans) interests. But fight we did. Some people involved may have had other motives that aren't clear but good has prevailed. Bankie's fans fought too, just as hard, but had lost numbers. The people who took over their club after the Steedmans screwed them wanted to relocate them, so Bankies would have ceased to exist back then too. All that kept them going were strange deals and a league position. Our situation was slightly more fortuitous in that we had a stadium to play in, in our own town.

To Order "Death and Resurrection" (Clubs in Crisis volume three - ISBN 0-9544369-2-X):

PRICE £6.99

P & P £1.50

Cheques to "Hurrah", Hurrah Books, PO BOX 109, Wirral, CH60 1WF.

MENTION YOU ARE AN AIRDRIE FAN TO QUALIFY FOR THE £1.50 FUND-RAISER. IF YOU WANT EITHER OF THE FIRST TWO VOLUMES, EACH SALE WILL GENERATE A FURTHER £1.50 TO AIRDRIE.

Alternatively, Jim Milton himself has a supply of books that he's been selling at the ground and there may be a supply at the club shop soon though that has still to be confirmed.