Tommy Burns 1956-2008

Scottish football's been brought back to to earth with a bump. Tommy Burns was universally liked across the football world and he'll be a sad loss to the game.

He was a tremendous servant to Celtic and played in their last great team that was full of Scots. As a manager he got a raw deal. His style of play provided many exciting, memorable games for the Parkhead faithful. Although he couldn't stop Rangers run of titles he did manage a season with only one league defeat.

There's not many former managers who would come back to the club they ran to take on a youth development role, but Burns jumped at the opportunity. He served Scotland well too. As a player he got only a handful of caps playing in an era when we had a wealth of midfielders, but as a coach he came into his own. It was a shame that the SFA didn't have the balls or the sense to give him the manager's job full time.

Parkhead this evening was a very sombre place, with hundreds of people coming and going to pay their respects. A Rangers fan received a spontaneous round of applause as he laid a shirt down and there were a few UEFA Cup final scarves and banners there too.

David Ross, who runs the Scottish League Forum has posted a nice tribute here.

There are a few more photographs of the tributes paid on my Flickr page.