Morton assistant boss reveals love of gardening as club secures sponsorship deal

A GOUROCK garden centre has extended its Morton sponsorship deal for another season – with green-fingered assistant manager Andy Millen revealing his 40-year love for horticulture.

Cardwell Garden Centre will have its name on the back on the club’s strips for a second consecutive year after a new deal was agreed.

Millen, who has enjoyed gardening since he was young, visited the centre following the announcement.

When he found himself out of work in football in 2010 after leaving his assistant manager role at St Mirren, Millen worked as a full-time gardener until joining Queen of the South a year-and-a-half later.

Andy Millen (Image: Cardwell Garden Centre)

The 58-year-old says the hobby is a great way to escape the pressures of professional football.

Andy said: “It’s very relaxing and there’s nothing better than working away in your garden for a couple of hours with nobody to bother you.

“It’s a hobby I really enjoy as you can switch off from everything else.

“It gives you your own space and when you’re working in the garden there’s nobody giving you any grief or hassle.

“No one will be standing there criticising me - unless my wife doesn’t like how I’ve trimmed the lawn!”

Millen caught the gardening bug as a teenager when his family moved house.

He said: “I grew up in the Red Road high flats in Glasgow, but there wasn’t much gardening to be done living on the 24th floor of a multi-storey.

“When I was 18 my family moved to Cumbernauld where we had a garden in both the back and front of the house and that’s when I started.

“I’ve never stopped since then and that’s 40 years now I’ve enjoyed working in my garden.

“I like to make sure my lawn is in perfect condition by cutting it regularly and scarifying the grass. I’ve also lots of flowers in planters and borders in my garden.”

To celebrate the new sponsorship deal, the centre created a special plant pot using a football.

Kieran Gallagher, director at Cardwell, said: “We like to play our part in the local community and that’s why we decided to again sponsor Morton FC, who are very much a community club.

Andy Millen (Image: Cardwell Garden Centre)

“We thought Andy would like the idea of flowers growing out the top of a football as that aptly represents the partnership between Morton and ourselves.”

Morton’s general manager Dale Pryde-MacDonald added: “We’re delighted Cardwell Garden Centre has committed to a further period of sponsorship of the back of our first team shirts.

“Working closely with local businesses is a key aim of ours within the club’s three-year strategy and being able to build on this strong partnership with Cardwell shows the commitment from both organisations to collaborate for the benefit of Inverclyde and our local communities."