Many older fans will remember/recognise the name of John Sutherland. Sadly, he has passed away at the age of 71yrs earlier this week.

For those that didn't know John, he was the stadium manager at ICT for a number of years in the days before we had a CEO. The roles were somewhat similar, and the stadium manager ran all the non-football activities of the club whilst the football manager and the director of football took care of all the footballing activities.     

I had the pleasure of dealing with John a lot over the years as it related to the website. He was in charge at the stadium in the days when David Sutherland and Ken Thomson were running things in the boardroom and kept the stadium running in an organised and regimental fashion befitting of his previous role as a captain in the Queens Own Highlanders. 

You could never be sure when John was being serious with you or winding you up as you discussed things, until you saw the smirk and realised he got you again! One of his other roles at the club was as the matchday security chief and many would perhaps recognise him from the entrance to the tunnel in the days before we had the pull-out cover ... there were many times that myself and our motley crew got a finger wag, a chuckle and a wink from John after a particularly good wind-up of opposition players, managers or the referee.    

My personal condolences go to his family, and we extend those condolences from the site also. 

Service will be on Wednesday 9th November as per the notice in the Courier.

John hard at work at the Caledonian Stadium. Photo previously supplied to the site by Ian Broadfoot