The legend that was the late Jock Stein was a great believer in the philosophy that if a player was good enough he was old enough. In a climate where until only recently managers have been over-keen to protect young players in the Scottish Premier League, Stein's early example coupled with that of the current new breed managers such as Tony Mowbray and Terry Butcher is perhaps a lesson that has been too easily forgotten.

Some of the greatest footballers we know started out early. Players such as George Best and arguably the greatest of them all, Pele were playing top flight football in their teens. Perhaps not quite in the same category, but never far from it was a player who holds the distinction of being the second-youngest ever to turn out in a senior Scottish league game.

Alex Edwards was only beaten by the 15-year-old Ronnie Simpson, another player who was to feature highly both with Hibernian and the career of Jock Stein. Long before Stein and Simpson teamed up at Celtic, Jock was responsible for introducing another soon to be Dunfermline and Hibernian legend to the game, taking the remarkable decision to field the young Edwards in a Fairs Cup clash against the might of Spanish giants Valencia in December 1962.

Alex was then only 16-years-old, but played his part on the right of the Dunfermline attack in destroying the Spaniards as the Pars ran out 6-2 winners. It was the first time any British club had defeated the Spanish side, and indeed Stein was very much a thorn in the side of more than a few European giants of the time, two years later steering Hibs to a 2-0 win over Real Madrid that was itself the first time that they too had been beaten by a British club.

It was the legendary Eddie Turnbull who shrewdly brought Alex to Easter Road shortly after his arrival at the club in 1971, on the same day that he transferred another Hibee hero, Eric Stevenson to Ayr United. It's probably an understatement to say that the Pars fans were unhappy! Alex did not get off to the best of starts - an ordering off against East Fife earning the temperamental star a ban that lasted 8 weeks! That was quickly forgotten on his return, as Turnbull found a magical right wing triangle in the shape of Edwards, John Brownlie and of course Pat Stanton.

In the 1972 League Cup semi-final against Rangers, that trio and their one-touch football had the Ibrox side chasing shadows all night and had the Hibs fans believing that at last they had found a blend within the team that could perhaps compete with Stein's Celtic in the final. Having lost 6-1 to the Parkhead outfit in the previous season's Scottish Cup Final at the national stadium, Hibs set out in that final to show everyone that they weren't going to crumble to Celtic for a second time.

Alex Edwards and Pat Stanton pulled all the strings, and Hibernian were victorious, the 2-1 scoreline actually being more comfortable than it looks. It was Edwards who floated in a sublime free-kick for Pat Stanton to fire home, and again the pair combined when Edwards found Stanton this time on the right wing, splitting the Celtic defence in the process, Jimmy O'Rourke completing a memorable day for the Hibees by heading home Pat's cross at the near post as the Celtic defenders carefully watched Alan Gordon at the back post. The Hibees were at last able to board the open topped bus for a parade along Princes Street.

That performance would easily have been enough to make every man who played a Hibernian legend, but Alex Edwards was not finished there, far from it. On what I will describe as a pleasant day at Tynecastle on 1st January 1973, Alex once again called the shots that helped destroy Hearts. A sublime controlled pass to Alan Gordon crafted the Hibees second goal, on a day that Hibs, prompted by Edwards, looked like scoring every time they went forward. To this day and probably for many, many more years to come, the memory will likely continue to haunt our city rivals! If there was one minor disappointment from that particular day, it was that no matter how hard they tried his team mates just could not set up a goal for "Mickey" himself!

It was a few days later however that things went wrong for Alex and for Hibs. Former Hibee Pat Quinn brought his East Fife side to Easter Road to frustrate, and nobody was frustrated more than Edwards, who after throwing the ball at an East Fife player found himself once again in trouble with the referee - and another 8-week suspension was the result. Worse for Hibs that day was the injury to John Brownlie, a broken leg counting him out of the side for a year.

Alex bounced back and resumed his duties alongside Pat Stanton and Alex Cropley in the Hibs midfield, but sadly, Turnbull's side was already all too soon on the slide and they couldn't repeat the heady days of 1972/73. Alex Edwards as a Scottish Cup winner at Dunfermline and a League Cup winner at Hibernian had already done enough to ensure his place in the history of both clubs however.

After playing 142 games for Hibs where he scored a surprisingly meagre 5 goals, Alex moved on to Arbroath from where he retired from top flight football. No longer directly involved in the game, Alex was most recently working as a brewery representative in his native Fife but still keeps well in touch with how his two loves Dunfermline and Hibernian are faring.