THE story of some of Athletic’s greatest European nights will be told in art form during an East End exhibition tomorrow.

And, for the man behind the paintings, putting his passion for football, and stadia, of yesteryear has helped him deal with the trauma of one of Britain’s worst sporting disasters.

Bradford-born Paul Town, who visited Dunfermline five years ago to present a portrait to the club that was commissioned by fan Kenny Mitchell, will showcase a trilogy of artworks telling the story of epic Fairs Cities Cup wins over Everton and Valencia, and the 1969 European Cup Winners Cup semi-final with Slovan Bratislava, ahead of the game with Morton.

The exhibition had been scheduled originally for last year by Dunfermline Athletic Heritage Trust trustees Donald Adamson and Kenny McLachlan but was postponed due to COVID-19.

Those original artworks, plus paintings of Roy Barry and Norrie McCathie, have been loaned back for the event, which takes place in the Purvis Suite between 10.30-11.30am, by their owners.

Paul’s work, which has become renowned among football supporters since setting up his business after around 30 years of working in the construction industry, has helped him find a release following the Bradford City fire in 1985.

The tragedy saw 56 fans lose their lives when the Main Stand at Valley Parade caught fire, which Paul and his father managed to escape.

“I used to do a lot of sketching when I was younger, when I was at school, and my mum used to come in, look at it, and ask why are you sketching football all the time? I said well, because it’s what I enjoy,” Paul told Press Sport.

“Football is my hobby, and it’s basically where it started.

“The artistic side of my life sort of left me for 25-30 years because I started working in the construction industry and I didn’t have time for it. About 10 years ago, I started doodling again, just as a bit of a release really from normal life, just to chill out, and my mum bought me some paints for Christmas.

“When I opened the present I said, ‘What am I supposed to do with these?’ And she said, ‘Well, start painting’!

“I’d been suffering from a lot of anxiety from the aftermath of the disaster I was involved in at Bradford and it gave me flashbacks. I could never put my finger on what it was but I wasn’t really well.

“I just used the painting as a bit of a release to take my mind off things and then the most natural thing for me to paint was sport themes.”

Paul, who revealed that Big Country – who were led by the late Stuart Adamson, himself a huge Pars fan – were his favourite music group as a teenager, continued: “With social media, you meet more people online, people get to know what you do, and obviously with Dunfermline, it was Kenny Mitchell I first met.

“I think the first portrait I did was of the Anderlecht game, a night scene. That got the ball rolling, then Kenny got in touch and said can you do a portrait of the Martin Hardie goal against Raith, so I said yeah. He said can you come up to Dunfermline and present it to the club, which I did, and that sort of got the ball rolling.

“I met Kenny Mclachlan and Jason Barber that day, and then it snowballed from there. Dunfermline’s become my Scottish team now.

“I think people seem to gravitate towards the style and what it means, firstly what it means to me to paint them, and how the paintings come across.

“Scottish people I think seem to be more passionate about the game to a degree. I think in England, it seems a bit more commercialised.

“I could paint any Scottish club to get an inroad into the fan market up there, and you can guarantee they would be on it in a breath.”

Paul added: "I had a vision when I was very young that I wanted this. I sometimes have to pinch myself that it's happening because I wasn't particularly blessed at school. I was a bit of a dreamer, but the more and more I look back now, at the time I was at school, I was probably looking out of the window, looking out the window, at the world artistically.

"We'd drive to football matches with my dad, and I'd see stadiums from the outside, and I'd look at the stadiums and think 'I'd love to draw that', but never got round to it.

"I think back to my school days now and how I used to think as a teenager, and obviously with the Bradford fire, the safety of football stadiums compounded it so much.

"First of all, escaping a stand when it's on fire was a traumatic thing. But losing a stand so quickly - sat in it one minute, and four minutes later it was gone, basically - obviously that sounds a little bit selfish to the point we lost 56 fans that day, but the flip side of the coin was a lot of people was very fond that structure and it was taken away from you so fast.

"That was the flip side of the coin, the fascination of football stadiums and the safety aspect, and then the fascination of lost football stadiums because we'd lost the stand at Bradford and the ground was rebuilt beyond recongition to what it is today."

Paul will have 50 limited edition Norrie McCathie prints - of the legendary Pars skipper celebrating a goal at St Mirren in an iconic image - on sale tomorrow.

You can view and find out more about Paul's work by visiting his website, https://www.stadiumportraits.com; his Facebook page, Stadium Portraits by Paul Town; or by following him on Twitter at @StadiumPortrait