Former Pars manager Dick Campbell will be returning to Dunfermline next month for a Football Comedy Night – An Evening with Dick Campbell and Friends".

Following on from two sell-out shows in 2022 and last year, this one will feature after dinner speaker George McNeill, as well as the star of BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Off the Ball’, Tam Cowan.

For Athletic fans, Dick is best remembered for his time managing Dunfermline Athletic after he become Bert Paton's assistant.

Paton and Campbell guided Dunfermline to promotion in the 1995–96 Scottish First Division season, and also achieved their highest league position, finishing fifth in the 1996–97 Scottish Premier Division season, with their team known for their adventurous attacking style of play.

Reminiscing on his time with Dunfermline Athletic, Dick picked out Bert Paton as a person he holds in the highest regard.

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He explained: “The word legend is overused nowadays in my opinion, but that is the word I’d use to describe one of the greatest ever players to turn out for Dunfermline Athletic.

"I served as Bert’s assistant for seven great years and have no hesitation in calling him a true legend.”

Dick will be regaling the Carnegie Hall audience with a myriad of his own hilarious stories from his long career in football. He told the Press that if he ever gets too big for his boots. his wife Ann-Marie wastes no time in bringing him back down to earth.

“This is my 39th year in football management and in that time I have won 39 manager of the month awards which I'm very proud of. However my wife Ann-Marie keeps me grounded if I ever seem to be boasting about that – she recently told me 'that's not as good as it sounds Dick – it only averages out at one a year’!

"Ann-Marie, who never came to any of my games at Arbroath, broke that habit once when we played in a Scottish Cup game against Forfar as both our sons, Ross and Iain, were playing for us.

"The boys both got sent off in a game we lost 3-1 and afterwards I decided to make an example of them and fined them both £100. However Ann Marie undermined my authority on that occasion when we got home by telling me Ross was just a student and couldn’t afford to pay the £100 so she paid both their fines herself…!”

Dick is looking forward to bringing two new speakers to the Carnegie Hall who he rates very highly.

“George McNeill is the longest serving after dinner speaker in Scotland and will wow the audience. I have worked with Tam Cowan for over thirty years, and as well as being hilarious, he also has a phenomenal knowledge of the game."

Dick left Arbroath last season and is now in charge of East Fife and setting his sights high for the new season: "I’ve worked my way round a number of Fife clubs now," he said.

"In addition to managing Dunfermline I’ve also managed Cowdenbeath and been first team coach at Raith Rovers. I didn't go to East Fife to just keep them in the league – I'm hoping to challenge at the top and will do my best to try and help them win the title”.

Dick highlighted the changes in football since his own playing days and the different ways in which players are treated today.

“I remember playing for Cowdenbeath at the age of seventeen against Rangers in a Scottish Cup game when I was on the end of a bad tackle from Rangers midfielder Joe Mason. It resulted in a bad open wound in my leg which would later require sixteen stitches.

"The trainer for Cowdenbeath at that time was Watty Glancy who rushed on to the field to treat me. However when the pain wasn’t subsiding and I looked down, I saw that Watty was treating the wrong leg! Recovery time wasn’t the same either back then-my leg was stitched up and I turned out the following midweek against Morton.”

Tickets for the ‘Football Comedy Night’ on Thursday, October 31, sponsored by ‘Ian Brown Motor Engineers’ and with the Dunfermline Press as Media Partners, are on sale priced £20 from the Carnegie Hall Box Office, as well as online at onfife.

In our competition, three winners each won a pair of tickets for the event. 

They are Adam McNinch, Audrey Hunter and Marc Hay.