ONE of four goalkeeping brothers to sign for an English First Division club, he never played a first team game but went on to lift the European Cup.

Monty Maclaren, 77, who stays in Maitland Street in Dunfermline, has also played at both Anfields – forgive the spelling Albion fans – and kept Bill Shankly hanging around at a train station for two hours.

From a proper football family, he signed for Liverpool in 1962, sharing dressing rooms with Scottish greats such as Ron Yeats, Ian St John and Tommy Lawrence, while two of his brothers vied for their club's number one jersey with England goalies Gordon Banks and Ron Springett.

Monty said: "We were all at English clubs around the same time, late '50s and early '60s, I don't know if it's in the Guinness Book of Records or not.

"I don't know how we all became goalkeepers. Because of the age difference we never all played together, they had left home when I was young and my brothers were in the Forces too.

"We didn't get it from our dad, Hamish. He was a real character but he never had a clue about football!

"I remember he came down to be with me for a while and the Liverpool Echo did a piece about us, my dad was in the middle and there were photos of the four goalkeeping brothers around him.

"Tommy Smith sent the clipping up to me. Once I was finished with the game, I never used to keep things like that and I was averse to watching football for a while."

Recalling the exploits of his footballing brothers, he said: "David was at Dundee, Leicester – he was understudy to Gordon Banks – and went to Plymouth, Wolves and Southampton.

"He didn't stay long at any club as he used to say you got good money for signing-on fees, and he got a few of them!

"He went on to Australia.

"Roy was at St Johnstone, Bury and Sheffield Wednesday, where he was understudy to Ron Springett, who also played for England.

"He finished up at Sheffield and went into coaching.

"He was a coach and former assistant manager at Aston Villa, under Tony Barton, when they won the European Cup in 1982.

"I've had it in my hands, the cup. We were down there and he asked if I wanted to lift it. The cup is actually light and it's all dented!"

He continued: "Jimmy was at Chester and Carlisle, he was there at the same time as Shankly, and finished up at Berwick Rangers.

"I remember one game I saw was St Johnstone v Berwick, Roy against Jimmy, and my brothers were both made captain for the day.

"It was the first time I'd seen them in years as I'm nine years younger than David, 13 years younger than Roy and 22 years younger than Jimmy.

"It's only me and Roy that's left now, he's 90."

Monty's career didn't go as planned but his performances on trial were impressive enough for Shankly, the Reds' legendary boss, to sign him.

He recalled: "I was two years at Liverpool. My mum died in 1961 and I went down in 1962, I was 18 at the time.

"I'd played a trial match for Stirling Albion – at Annfield believe it or not! – against East Stirling and it rained all day.

"Two weeks later, I got a call from Liverpool, I don't know if they'd watched that game or when I played juvenile.

"I was there for two weeks on trial and it was a real culture shock; I'd never been away from Auchterarder before and there were lights and noise and people everywhere.

"I came home and wasn't going back but one of my brothers persuaded me.

"We got £30 a week and the first-team players were on £50 a week plus bonuses.

"The maximum wage was abolished around that time. The players were getting paid peanuts compared to what clubs were taking out of the grounds.

"If you made it now you'd be on £100,000 a week. I'd do it for a month!"

He continued: "The A team was where the youngsters started off and it was a really good team, like a breeding ground.

"Tommy Smith was in the reserves with me and Chris Lawler was there too.

"We had some super players, I think we only lost one game that season, and a lot of them went into the senior side.

"I kept in touch with some of the lads. I spoke to the Saint about six months ago and Ronnie (Yeats) was a big friend of mine, a really good chap, the best centre half I ever saw.

"I didn't play for the first team, it just didn't work out for me. It wasn't down to ability, I just couldn't settle. I was a bit of a loner, a bit inexperienced.

"I had trials for a couple of teams, I went to Hibs for a game, but broke down. I had a dodgy knee."

He moved to Dunfermline in 1965 and married Helen in 1966. There's football pedigree on her side of the family too.

Monty explained: "Her dad, Andrew McKenzie, played for Dundee United in the 1950s and won three schoolboy caps for Scotland."

He worked in retail for Binns furniture shop and the Vogue furniture warehouse in Edinburgh – as a keen golfer who played off three at his best, he enjoyed outings with the firm that gave him a chance to play with Nick Faldo and Peter Alliss – before taking a job at Thomson's World of Furniture.

A firm friend of Jim Leishman, Monty became a big fan of Dunfermline Athletic, he was chairman of the Paragon Club for a few years and a former member at Canmore Golf Club.

Asked if the record exists, a spokesperson for the Guinness World Records said: "I’ve had a look on our records system and this doesn’t seem to be a record we monitor currently."