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Alex Ferguson may be one of the most successful football managers of all time, but he wasn't always at the top of the pile. In his younger days, far from being parachuted into a position with a glamorous, multi-million-pound club in one of the top European leagues, Ferguson got his start with the club commonly known as the worst in Britain.
East Stirling now play in the Lowland League, the fourth tier of Scottish football. They gained infamy by finishing bottom of the Scottish fourth tier for five seasons in a row until they finally managed to finish one point above the last spot in 2008.
It was all the way back in 1974 that the future Manchester United legend, then only 32, took control of the minnows, managing the team on a part-time basis for the princely sum of £40.00 per week, whilst his players were paid even less; only around £5.00 a week.
With just under a month to go before the new season began, Ferguson had only eight players available. Not one of those was a goalkeeper.
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Fergie may have been new to the managerial game, but it seems he already had that spark of genius that would see him lead Manchester United to enormous success.
His first game in charge was a League Cup tie, played against Forfar Athletic in front of around 700 people.
East Stirling were 3-0 down at half time, but thanks to an inspired team talk, the underdogs somehow managed to turn things around. It was a sign of things to come. Ferguson won 9 of his 17 games in charge at East Stirling, an impressive achievement considering their lack of finance.
But Ferguson's spell at East Stirling didn't last long. Four months after arriving, he had made the move to Saint Mirren, a club in the same division as East Stirling, but with a much larger budget and fanbase.
He soon led St. Mirren to the top of the division above, moving onto Aberdeen, then taking charge of the Scotland national team before finally ending up at Manchester United.
As for East Stirling, it's safe to say they never had as talented a manager take charge of them again. Things have gone from bad to worse in recent years for the Falkirk based side, with the club having suffered relegation from the Scottish Football League as well as becoming homeless after selling off their historic home ground.
Whatever happens though, East Stirling will always have the honour of having been managed by Sir Alex Ferguson for four short months, over 40 years ago.
