BIRMINGHAM City recently visited Central Park to watch an Ayr United player in a reserve match. However, it was 17-year-old Cowden midfielder Liam Callaghan who caught the eye and he was invited down south for a week's trial, playing in a match versus Chelsea. Young Liam certainly looks like one for the future at Central Park and is yet another product of the prolific Cowdenbeath youth system. More remarkably, he has now become the fourth generation of his family to have made their way in senior football and to have played for Cowdenbeath FC. Let's travel back down the years, through the beye of Cowden director and historian David Allan.

Willie Callaghan and Ellen Flannigan were married in Windsor, Ontario, in Canada, in 1929. Willie had played football for Kelty St Joseph's before emigrating in 1924. In Canada, he won a championship medal with his works team in 1929. From his footballing days, Willie earned the nickname of 'Speedy' Callaghan due to his slow moving style and was known to all and sundry by this name ever after. Ellen came from a footballing family. Her brother, Pat Flannigan, was born in Kelty in 1909. As a boy, he played for Cowdenbeath and District Schools as a goalkeeper but he played senior football as a centre-half. He joined Cowdenbeath from Kelty Rangers and in 1928, with Cowden, he toured Germany where he also proved to be an expert exponent of the current dance craze, 'the black bottom'. Later, he played with Liverpool and Bradford City. Then he played in the USA for New York Giants during which time the club won the American Soccer League championship. His older brother, Dave 'Slide' Flannigan, too was a footballer. Dave played for Third Lanark, Newcastle United, Cowdenbeath, and East Stirling as well as for Ballymena in Ireland. Dave was a bit of a lad. There was a �2 court fine in 1932 when he was found guilty of assaulting Sergeant McKay of the local police force in a fracas at Cowdenbeath Labour Club (The Ritz). A year later he was given 21 days at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for being disorderly and causing a breach of the peace in Aberdour by demanding drink in a cafe. The local police had to use their batons to subdue Dave. Willie and Ellen Callaghan returned to Cowdenbeath from Canada in 1935 and their sons Willie and Tommy were subsequently born in Barclay Street. Later, the family moved to live at 8 Mossbank. Young Willie and Tommy played in the school teams in Cowdenbeath for both St Bride's and St Columba's plus the 46th Fife Scouts. School team-mates included Mick Payne, Denis Jack and Dennis Canavan. Willie, initially, was a free scoring forward with Churchmount, a youth team in Lochgelly, and worked in the local Co-op. He joined Dunfermline from junior side Crossgates Primrose in 1960 and became a true Dunfermline legend. Over the next 12 years, he collected two full Scotland caps and a Scottish Cup winner's medal as a Pars' stalwart. He also went on the Scotland XI tour of Asia, Oceania and Canada in the summer of 1967. Willie thus joined such greats as Jim Baxter, Tommy Muirhead, Willie Cunningham and Alex Venters, as one of the small local elite who proudly wore the dark blue of Scotland. He really was an excellent full back and he ended his career with his home town club Cowdenbeath. Willie still stays in Cowdenbeath and has recovered from a bout of poor health a couple of years back. In 2008, Willie was inducted into the Dunfermline Athletic Hall of Fame. Back in 1993, he also became Cowden's kitman when his son, yet another Willie Callaghan, was on the books of the Blue Brazil. Like his father, young Willie played for both West Fife clubs. A fast, hard working striker, Willie was top scorer in his first two full seasons with Cowden. He was Cowden's player of the year in 1994. Later he was sold to Livingston. Former Pars boss Jim Leishman signed him as he had done on several occasions in the past. Willie scored 28 League goals for Cowden. Many were highly memorable, including both goals at East End Park in the miraculous 2-0 Cowden victory of 1993. These goals cost Dunfermline promotion and ended Cowden's run of 33 league games without a win. He earned an undying place in the affections of the Cowdenbeath support that day. He can be often be seen at Central Park nowadays watching his son Liam play. Tommy 'Tid' Callaghan joined Cowden's nursery team, Cowdenbeath Royals, where he played alongside the likes of Andy Rolland and Mike Judge. The Royals won many trophies when Tommy played for them. He was provisionally signed by Cowdenbeath but he and Andy Rolland were both freed by manager Harry Colville who thought they were 'too wee'. Tommy then went into the juniors and joined the strong going Lochore Welfare. Jock Stein soon saw Tid's promise and signed him for Dunfermline in 1962. He was a strong running player who played on the left side of midfield. He could get up and down the pitch, was a fierce tackler, and was good on the ball. After a bit of judicious tapping by his old boss Jock Stein, Tommy engineered his transfer to Celtic in November 1968 just a few months after he and Willie had played in the Dunfermline side that had beaten Hearts at Hampden to win the Scottish Cup.

Tid of course was joining one of Scottish football's all-time great sides and he played in six of Celtic's famed nine in a row championship seasons. There were also three more Scottish Cup successes for Tom at Celtic Park. He played in many of Celtic's most memorable matches. Tid enjoyed eight fine years at Parkhead and in more recent years has been a popular matchday host back at his old Celtic Park stamping ground. Tommy was a great pro who enjoyed a marvellous career and the boy from Cowdenbeath really was a player who was unjustly neglected by the national side. He was, though, capped by the Scottish League.

His son Tommy Callaghan too had a good football innings. Tommy junior started down south with Aston Villa and like his dad was a midfielder. Back in Scotland, he played with many clubs including St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Falkirk, Dunfermline, Livingston and Partick Thistle. He was briefly at Firhill at the same time as his cousin Willie Callaghan. Tommy subsequently became a football agent.