MALCOLM Macdonald celebrated his 60th birthday last week and we asked The Legends for a memory from Supermac’s illustrious career.

BERNIE SLAVEN: First of all I want to make it clear that I wasn’t born when Malcolm was at his best!

I’ll tell you about when I was a lad in Glasgow in the 1970s. Some of the other boys used to have sideburns and they used to call them ‘Supermacs.’ I didn’t even know who Malcolm was at the time.

But obviously I have seen his goals on dvd since then and he was a quality striker.

He was the opposite to me: strong, quick and totally single-minded when it came to getting into goalscoring positions.

I can’t see Malcolm and me playing in the same team because he was a greedy so-and-so and to be fair I was too.

I liked his onedimensional approach towards football. He was there to get goals and nobody was going to get in his way. He was a battering ram and a nightmare for defenders.

MICKY HORSWILL: The very first time I met Malcolm was at a Rod Stewart and the Faces concert.

It was just after we had won the FA Cup semifinal in 1973 and about six of the Sunderland squad went to the venue in Newcastle to see the gig.

And when we took our seats who else but Supermac was sitting in the same row as us?

I didn’t know him personally at the time but he was already a legend on Tyneside. Rod Stewart heard that we were there so he announced from the stage that there were some special guests in the audience and we all went up on the stage – the Sunderland lads and Malcolm.

We stood beside the piano while the band played.

Beside our feet was a crate full of booze – vodka, brandy and whisky – proper rock and roll lifestyle.

And that was my first memory of Malcolm. We were just in the second division at the time, whereas he was a superstar for Newcastle and England. For us to meet Rod Stewart and Malcolm in the same night made it an unforgettable experience.

MALCOLM MACDONALD: I have had a wonderful time celebrating my birthday this week but that hasn’t always been the case.

Because it falls on the first week of January it always coincided with FA Cup third round day. And I have had some scary moments. The first one at Newcastle we were stuffed by bloody Hereford, so that was a particularly unhappy birthday and a few years later we could only draw with Hendon at home.

In terms of highlights it’s difficult to recall just one memory because I have been lucky to enjoy a wonderful career. But I would have to go with my home debut against Liverpool.

Scoring a hat-tick in my first game in a Newcastle United shirt at St James’ Park – you can hardly ask for more can you? The only drawback was losing a couple of teeth in a challenge with Liverpool goalkeeper Ray Clemence.

There is a famous photograph of me from first thing on the Sunday morning when I am sitting in bed with my face all swollen up, stitches in my lips and a huge black eye. My kids were screaming. I suppose it was a case of going from the highs to the lows in the space of a few hours. But I wouldn’t swap the memory of my debut for anything.

Listen to The Legends weekdays 6-8pm and Saturdays from 1pm on 100-102FM Real Radio.

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