Slim Jim

This time next week, I will be at East End Park for Dunfermline's first league game of the domestic season, back in the Scottish Premier League. The game is on Sky, so if your sat in front of the telly next week, give the Pars a cheer as we kick off our campaign against St Mirren.

But today's blip is a memorial statue of a former player of our Fife rivals, Raith Rovers, 'Slim' Jim Baxter. A left footed midfielder who played for Rangers, Sunderland and Notts Forest before finishing his career back at Rangers.

He is regarded as one of the finest footballers Scotland ever produced, winning 34 caps. Baxter had a relatively short career but one packed with memories including the international between Scotland and England at Wembley in 67, the year after England won the World Cup. Whilst tricks and showboating are part of the modern game, when Baxter started doing keepie uppies on the left wing, some viewed it as being disrespectful to the opposition. Few Scotland fans would agree! Scotland won 3-2 and as the first team to beat England since the World Cup final, the Tartan Army crowned the team the Unofficial World Champions!

After his death in 2001, this statue was erected a few years later in the village of Hill of Beath (Fifers miss out the 'o' when saying it) where Baxter was born and grew up. When I saw the last of the day's sun shining on the statue, I stopped off to take a few shots. I spotted a cool Highland Coo in a nearby field, but he can wait for another day.