If ever you are unable to attend a match in Oriel Park you are now able to tune into Dundalk FM for live coverage. This wonderful service is much appreciated by Dundalk supporters who live abroad who can also follow the action on the internet and allows them to keep in contact with their club. Along with Gerry Cunningham and Larry O’Rourke, former Dundalk FC legend John Murphy forms part of the commentary team. We met up with the former Lilywhite’s Captain to talk about his time with Dundalk FC.
Tell me about your career before you joined Dundalk FC? Believe it or not I didn’t play that much minor football. I played with the Pats in the Summer League. Jack Kieran was on the committee of the Pats and he asked me to go up to Oriel to train with the B Team. I was there for about two years with no sign of anything happening for me. I had a limited amount of skill but I had great ambitions for myself so I kept going. All of a sudden Ken Finn decided to emigrate and in 1959 I was promoted to the 1st team against Bohemians. After that I established myself.
Was it a nerve-wracking experience when you got into the first team? It was. I remember Tommy Kerr, who won a FAI Cup winners medal the previous year, before the Bohs game going around shaking hands with everybody. Once he came to me he had a poker up his sleeve and I was left standing in the middle of the dressing room with a poker in my hand! It took the tension out of the situation. You had the likes of Joe Ralph who was there and was a great help for young players like me. He would encourage me to play things simple until I became more experienced. It was a simple piece of advice but very important.
What style of football did Dundalk play in those days? We had the likes of Dermot Cross and Francie Callan who could hold it up and were great dribblers and allowed us to be organised. Johnny Robinson was centre-half and was slowing up by this time. I was playing right-full and he was great at organising us to cover each other. The defence developed a great understanding with Tootsie McKeown in the left-full position.
When did you become captain of the team? I became captain at the start of the 62-63 season. It was a great honours. I suppose in those days being captain was mainly going up for the toss of the coin. But by then I had a few years behind me and I was able to talk to the players and help organise them. This season was the first time we really had a manager with Joey Donnelly. Joey was not really into the technical side of the game. He would just say “I know you can play football just go out and play as I expect you to play”.
What was so special about the 62-63 winning team? We had an excellent forward line who scored plenty of goals. Jimmy Hasty and Francie Callan in particular. We had Stan Pownall, Billy Kennedy and Davy McArdle on the wing who were able to score a lot of goals. We were solid at the back with myself and Tootsie in the full backs along with Johnny Robinson who was a great teacher to learn from. We blended very well together. We got a lot of great service from the ex-Drumcondra brigade that Bob Prole sent down. Towards the end of the season we were playing in Dalymount with thousands of people from Dundalk at the game. We were 2-0 down and playing awful. Billy Kennedy scored a goal and there wasn’t even a cheer for it. Then Francie Callan scored the equaliser and we got a point. That put us a point ahead. We were then two points ahead and Drums and Cork Hibs were playing mid-week. Which ever one of those teams won would win the league. But they only drew so we pipped them by a point.
Can you remember hearing that you had won the league? Yes and it’s a very sad story. In those days there was no switching on Aertel obviously. I got a knock on the door and it was Colm Bellew. Colm threw his arms around me and told me we won the league. I remember that Colm was very excited and said “We’re in the European Cup now! The draw is in a couple of weeks!”. Sadly Colm died playing at a Summer League match in Joe’s Park two weeks later. I was at the game and it was very sad that he didn’t even see the draw as Colm was a crucial part of the club at that time.
What was so special about Jimmy Hasty?
He was so special because everybody took pity on him because he had one arm. But he never wanted pity. I used to take him home to the Quay when Jimmy would still get the expenses from the club for staying in the Lorne! On his first day of work he had an accident that resulted in his arm being cut off. But he had a secret weapon as a result. He had a bit of stump coming out of the arm. If you were marking Jimmy he would lie across you with his stump and your shoulder. You wouldn’t be able to get off the ground. No defender could jump with him! But how can the referee give a foul against you with an empty sleeve of a jersey hanging down! I remember one of his first games down in Cork and John Coughlan, who was a real do or die Cork man, asking me about Jimmy after the game when we had won the match easily. “Where did you get that fellah from?”, “We bought him from Newry Town” I replied. “Will you pass on a message from me to him” he said, “The next time I meet him I won’t be so nice and I’ll pull the other arm out!!!”.
But Jimmy had a lot of skill also and was the main man in those days.
And then you had a European adventure… I remember leaving the shoe factory at 4.30. On the bus at 5.30 and into Dalymount because we had no lights at 6.45. It turned out that Zurich had white jerseys also. Mickey Fox got us the local Arsenal teams’ kit so we had to wear the Red and White kit. I think we were overawed by the situation and we didn’t play anything like we were capable and lost 3-0. When we went to Zurich we had nothing to lose and we produced one of the best displays a Dundalk team ever produced. It was wonderful and we had a great crowd with us.
I remember getting off the plane and Timmy Lyons had a broken ankle and was in a wheelchair. Gerry McCourt the trainer had a bad limp followed Timmy. Then Jimmy Hasty with one arm followed Gerry. We must have looked like we had taken a wrong turn on the way to Lourdes!
Why did you leave the club a few years after? Jimmy McAlindon, the manager of Glenavon, was after me to sign for them for years. I always liked the idea of playing up north. Myself and Tootsie McKeown met with the Dundalk committee and asked them for a raise of ten shillings. They told us “no way”. Jimmy wanted the two of us but Tootsie couldn’t play up the North because he was working in Wallace’s Seed Shop on the Saturday and couldn’t travel. I was still holding out for a deal at Dundalk but there was no sign of it coming. So Jimmy came down to Dundalk to Clarkes Factory at the Quay and put £800 into my hand as a signing on fee and promised me £25 per week. At this stage I was getting married and looking to buy a house. That money paid for my house that I still live in to this day! Dundalk wouldn’t change their mind.
How did the Glenavon fans take to you? They were great to me. I still get Christmas Cards from my time there. We won the Ulster Cup and were runners up in the IFA Cup Final. We were getting beaten 2-1 by Coleraine in a controversial final.
Did you have any problems up North? Well with a name like Murphy I was bound to get called a lot of sectarian names. I couldn’t park my car at the likes of Windsor Park or it would have been overturned. The Oval was not a pleasant place to play either but Ballymena was the worst of all. They would throw stones and everything at you. I ended up playing up North for five years though. I didn’t want to leave Dundalk but I have never had any regrets about going to Glenavon.
You ended up back in OrielPark eventually and into another big European Night… Yes I was signed back after poor Tootsie broke his leg in Holland playing against Utrecht. It was an unfortunate situation for him. It was great night for the club and I will never forget it. Jimmy Morrissey scored the winner with a header from outside the box. Then we were drawn against Rangers who had Alex Ferguson in their team.
Was Ibrox intimidating?
That was the second time I had played there as I had got a cap for the Irish League against the Scottish League. It was full of players from the European Cup winning Celtic team. Billy McNeill, Jimmy Johnstone, Yogy Hughes….they all played that day. It was great to come back to Dundalk and to play in Europe.
What happened then? Well Liam Tuohy arrived and we never got on. He was an outside-left and I was the right-full. I would hammer into him when playing against him and he didn’t like it much! Tuohy didn’t like tacklers like me and released me. I then went up to Drumcondra for a season then. From that I coached with Quay Celtic. I ended up as assistant manager to John Smith and Jim McLaughlin in Oriel Park in the 1970s.
Any regrets that you never became Dundalk manager? Not really. There was a time when John Smith left and Enda McGuill asked me to be manager. I asked him “On what terms Enda? I would want to be my own man with an assistant to pick the team”. Enda told me that I would have to pick the team with the committee. I told him that I would not be interested in that type of set-up. Peter Watson, who I had played with at Glenavon, then came in to do the job. I managed Monaghan United in the mid-80s when Derry City first came into the league. I remember playing Derry City in Belgium Park when they had a wage bill of over £2000 and we were on £125!! We beat them 2-1! We had locals like Colm McConville, Bernie Savage and Mickey Coburn. I came back to Bank Rovers and I had a really good time. I got as big a kick out of Bank Rovers as I did when winning the league at Dundalk. We had such a dedicated group that didn’t complain when asked to train on Stephen’s Day.
Are you enjoying being back in Oriel commentating with Dundalk FM? It’s given me a new lease of life and new interest in the football. I had 30 years in football and I thought that I had enough. The commentaries on the radio are really enjoyable.
You are not afraid to criticise that’s for sure… I dislike cheats and players who hide during games. That comes from my own make-up. I might not have played well but I always tried. There is always a bad game around the corner. But there is nothing worse than seeing a player hide on the pitch. With my experience in the game I can spot these player. All in all though this is not a problem with Dundalk at the moment I was talking to David Hoey recently and he was saying there is a great spirit in the camp. So things are looking good at the moment for Dundalk and hopefully they can continue to improve.
