This article featured in the Dundalk v Bray Wanderers Magazine: June 2009
The death occurred on May 20th of one of Ireland’s goalkeeping greats, Alan Kelly Snr. Alan began his career at Bray Wanderers in the 1950s before moving to Drumcondra where he won an FAI Cup Winners medal in 1957 and a League of Ireland championship in 1958. He made the first of 47 caps for Ireland in a famous 3-0 win over then World Champions West Germany in 1956. In 1960 he was transferred to Preston North End where he played 447 competitive matches and was so revered that Preston honoured him by opening the Alan Kelly Snr Stand at Deepdale in 2001. Kelly also had the honour of managing the Republic of Ireland national team following the departure of John Giles in 1980.
Bray Wanderers have always been rightly proud of their role in developing Kelly’s talent. Kelly told Colm Keane in his book Tales of the Wanderers: “I remember how I joined Bray Wanderers. I had been playing with local clubs Cualann Rovers and Dargle Rovers. One night, when I was about 17, someone said that Mick Donegan, who ran Bray Wanderers, wanted to see me. I ran down to the Carlisle Grounds and he said, ‘What’s your name?’ I said ‘I’m Alan Kelly.’ Then he said,’ Oh no, it’s not you I want to see, it’s someone else. I was walking out when he called me back and said, ’I’m sorry, but would you like to play against Glebe North on Sunday?’ Apparently, Bray’s regular ‘keeper was injured, so Mick asked me to take his place. It was like winning the pools. We drew 2-2 with Glebe North and I remained in goal for the rest of the season”.
Kelly’s debut for the Republic of Ireland remains one of the greatest days in Irish football history. It was only, admittedly, a friendly match. However, Ireland were up against a strong West German team including many members of their famous 1954 World Cup winning team that overcame hot favourites Hungary in Berne. What made it more remarkable was that the Irish team featured seven League of Ireland players. Ireland’s 3-0 victory was viewed with real pride by the Irish football community.
Alan Kelly was by no means the only hero of this victory – but he was singled out for special attention by the media reporting the match. Frank Johnstone of the Irish Times stated: “Kelly more than justified our hopes of answering the goalkeeping problem…His catching and positional play was first class.” W.P. Murphy of the Irish Independent also lavished praise on the 20 year old debutant and singled out a vital save from Vollmar as the turning point of the game: “The ball was cleared and it came straight down to Vollmar, and the outside left practically took the ball out of Dunne’s mouth – an amazing acrobatic feat which left him with a clear field. Here young Kelly faced the nightmare of every goalkeeper – the question of when to advance and when to stay at home. Young Kelly timed his advance to a second – not too early to allow the German to swerve past, but early enough to narrow the angle – and he went down in most courageous fashion to get the ball off Vollmar’s toes and earn the biggest cheer of the game”.
Ireland took the lead after 62 minutes when Dermot Curtis was fouled in the box. Noel Cantwell made no mistake from the spot. Mai then hit the post for Germany. Ireland sealed their famous victory late on when Joe Harverty went on an amazing run from his own half to shoot past Kwaitkowski. Tommy Dunne scored a third goal late in injury team to send the 35,000 Irish supporters in Dalymount home very happy indeed.
Ireland: Alan Kelly (Drumcondra), Seamus Dunne (Luton Town), Noel Cantwell (West Ham), Tommy Dunne (St. Pats), Gerry Mackey (Shamrock Rovers) capt, Ronnie Nolan (Shamrock Rovers), Jimmy McCann (Shamrock Rovers), Noel Peyton (Shamrock Rovers), Dermot Curtis (Shelbourne), Arthur Fitzsimons (Middlesbrough), Joe Haverty (Arsenal)
Germany: Kwiatkowski, Erhardt, Juskowiak, Schlebrowski, Wewens, Mai, Rahn, Morlock, Miltz, Schafer, Vollmar
Colm Murphy
Dundalk FC Magazine
