IF EVER a player embodied all that was good in his club, Third Lanark, that playerwas Matt Balunas.

He came upon the football scene at a time of great joy. The war in Europe was virtually over and Balunas had already taken the first steps towards a career in association football.

Balunas had arrived at Cathkin Park in Glasgow's south side from the Lanarkshire hotbed of Newarthill, where the local Hearts had carried all before them. This was partly because the primary product was coal, the workforce was a mining one and, therefore, potential players were most unlikely to be called upon for military service.

In those days, every small town or hamlet in Lanarkshire and the Lothians had its own football team. At the height of post-war activity Lanarkshire could boast of 25 junior clubs and even add that there were a couple of clubs still to resume operation.

Full-backs in Matt Balunas's time were on the whole hewn from a different oak than those of today. Backs tackled, toothily if you liked them, ferociously if you did not. Backs punted the ball hard and high when under pressure and the back row of the stand loomed invitingly.

There was a stir in the air and six years to make up. The young Balunas found himself part of a record when he took part in a Glasgow cup final with Celtic which attracted the astonishing crowd of 86,000.

It is always difficult for a young player to establish himself, especially if it means supplanting a popular favourite. This was the task confronting Balunas because he was taking over the position held by the great Jimmy Carabine, who was an internationalist and, by the standards of his time, highly sophisticated in his use of the ball.

Balunas was a different proposition. He had the great benefit of being able to form a partnership with the diminutive but lion-hearted Johnny Kelly. However, just when it seemed as if this might be a long-term established venture, Kelly was given such a turning over by England's Stanley Matthews in one game that he was never quite the same again. The result was that much of the responsibility for organising the defence fell upon Balunas.

Balunas, though, had the rich compensation of playing with many good players and two great ones: Bobby Mitchell and Jimmy Mason could write after their title of Third Lanark the words "and Scotland".

But the full-backwas the antithesis of the flash-Harry type of player. He did the obvious and sensible things almost before the spectator had noticed that there was anything amiss. He gave to the Hi-Hi the gift of continuity because in due time the Bobby Mitchells and the other young stars would go off south.

Balunas made very few intrusions into enemy lines and compared to him, Celtic's Neil Lennon is a prolific scorer. He bore the sting of relegation and the spur of promotion equally calmly and always seemed ideally suited to Cathkin Park, a surprisingly idyllic setting in an industrial background.

If it is tempting to suggest that he was over-rated, promoted beyond his capabilities, then a small still voice is saying that Balunas took on Waddell, Smith, Delaney, et al for a full 10 years - this was no ordinary mortal.

Balunas was durability itself. Year after year in the list of ever-presents for Third Lanark, his name topped the rest or he would miss at most two matches out of 30.

He had many friends in the south side of Glasgow (it was possible to support two clubs in those days without being a Lithuanian shipping magnate). In cricket terms, he may not have been captaincy material, but he was most certainly ideally equipped to be a senior pro.