Candystripes get off to three and easy sweet start
AIRTRICITY PREMIER DIVISION DERRY City got the new season off to the perfect start by seeing off First Division champions UCD in comfortable fashion at the Brandywell.
Declan Devine’s newly assembled team were far from perfect but this could not have gone any better for the new manager, with the clean sheet just as important as the goals at the other end.
The Brandywell burst into life 21 minutes in when the Candystripes took the lead with their first goal of the season, and what a goal it was as David Parkhouse opened his account for his hometown team.
Barry McNamee’s shot deflected into the sky and came to the feet of Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe in the area. With his back to goal, he cleverly flicked the ball behind him to the incoming Ciaron Harkin, who then pulled it back across goal for Parkhouse to turn it home from close range.
Despite the worsening conditions at the start of the second half, Derry were back on the front foot and so nearly doubled their lead, only for a superb double save from Conor Kearns.
A surge from Patrick McClean led to a through ball for Parkhouse, who returned the pass, only for Kearns to somehow keep out the defender’s drive. Parkhouse reacted quickest to the loose ball with a diving header only for Kearns to save the rebound as well.
UCD were still very much in the game however, and the lively Conor Davis sent a reminder on 56 minutes as he expertly turned past Eoin Toal and delivered a curling effort which had Peter Cherrie diving across his goal, only for the ball to bend the wrong side of the post.
The second goal was a memorable one to say the least.
McNamee’s clever pass started a race for the ball between striker Parkhouse and goalkeeper Kearns.
The goalkeeper got there first but only sent the ball directly to the feet of Eoghan Stokes who curled it back over his head from 40 yards.
Defender Josh Collins watched the ball the whole way but instead of clearing it he could only slice it into his own net as City were gifted a 2-0 lead and a bit of a cushion. Ogedi-Uzokwe could have scored twice in as many minutes as Derry threatened to kill UCD off completely, denied by Kearns then a last ditch tackle by Dan Tobin.
But there was no stopping Derry now and they sealed the win on 66 minutes with their third goal.
Again it was down to defensive errors from UCD as Collins sliced a clearance straight into the path of Harkin, who quickly played in Stokes (above) who turned the ball home from close range with the help of a deflection.
DERRY CITY: Cherrie, Harkin, Sloggett, Parkhouse, Ogedi-Uzokwe (Delap, 85 mins), Toal, McClean, Stokes (McDonagh, 72 mins), Cole, Kerr, McNamee (Bruna, 84 mins).
UCD: Kearns, Tobin, Scales, Collins, Farrugia, O’Neill, Molloy, McClelland, O’Farrell (Coffey, 72 mins), Davis (Madhy, 80 mins), Dignam.
Referee:
John McLaughlin
TERRY Neill has more stories than JK Rowling. Great company, you could listen all day to the 76-year-old born in east Belfast and brought up in Bangor. It’s not just his football tales relating to being boss of Hull, Tottenham, Arsenal and Northern Ireland that entertain. Get Terry talking about stars of stage and screen he has met and you’ll be hanging on his every word like when he, wife Sandra and daughters Tara and Abigail were rubbing shoulders with Hollywood royalty after watching the closing ceremony for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
“It was an amazing show. At the end we were with Dustin Hoffman, a big pal of my friend the actor Tom Courtenay from Hull, and he introduced us to Henry Winkler, the Fonz. Cary Grant was also there,” recalled Neill.
“Sandra saw Cary Grant and said to Dustin ‘with all apologies he is one of my favourite actors’. So Dustin brought him over. Cary said to Sandra, ‘wasn’t that a magnificent closing ceremony?’ and Sandra came out with this great line, ‘I would rather watch one of your movies any day’, and we all fell about laughing!”
Terry smiles at the thought. There’s also a twinkle in his eye when he chats about one of his favourite musicians.
“After training with Arsenal I used to play football with my good friend Bob Marley (below) on the astro-turf in west London. He was actually a good midfielder. Bob was quite the character. I’m going to have his music played at my funeral though I hope to be around for a while yet,” he said, chuckling in his beautiful Brighton home.
Neill is best known for his time as a straight talking manager and leading the Gunners to a famous FA Cup triumph against Manchester United 40 years ago in the ‘five minute final’. He was a fantastic player too, joining Arsenal as a teenager in 1959. So influential in fact they made him captain when he was only 20 though the former Bangor Grammar pupil reveals he thought long and hard about becoming a professional footballer.
“It took me six weeks to agree to join The Arsenal because I was serving an engineering apprenticeship and I was thinking why should I leave my beloved family and go to a big strange city,” said Neill, who celebrates his 50th wedding anniversary with Sandra in November.
“I was fortunate having the best mother and father ever and was enjoying an idyllic childhood growing up in Bangor.
❝ I used to play football with my good friend Bob Marley. He was actually a good midfielder.
“The Arsenal were a bit taken aback because they weren’t used to young upstarts giving a move a bit of thought. Then I decided to give it a go feeling if it didn’t work out I would come home.” It worked out and then some. Neill played for over a decade at Arsenal and established himself in the Northern Ireland side. He credits the great Bertie Peacock for walking and talking him through his first cap as an 18-year-old in Italy and lavishes praise on legendary manager Peter Doherty plus other trusted mentors Danny Blanchflower, Harry Gregg and Peter McParland for guiding and inspiring him as a youngster.
He would win 59 caps between 1961 and 1973 and even became player-manager of his country, remarkably at the same time as doing the same job for Hull City, where he had been appointed boss at the age of 28!
Greatest moment for Northern Ireland? Scoring against England at Wembley in a famous 1-0 win in 1972 when he was also boss.
“Derek Dougan and I did a switch at a corner and when the chance came thankfully I kept my cool. It was probably the only left foot volley I ever scored. It was a lovely moment for me but more than that it was a great performance from all the lads,” the proud grandfather of four says.
Being able to play alongside and manage George Best was another international highlight.
“George was a genius,” said Terry.
“When George first came into the team he was quiet and shy, a wonderful trainer and a delight to know.
“In George’s early games at Windsor Park his dad Dickie, being a self-effacing and wonderful man, would stand outside the players entrance away from the crowd. I would go to see him and he would say ‘Thanks for looking after George’ and I’m thinking George was looking after all of us!”
In 1974 Neill left his role at Hull to replace the iconic Bill Nicholson as manager of Spurs, a move that did not go down well with some of their fans due to his Arsenal connection.
He remembered: “The home supporters didn’t want me and the directors didn’t really know who the hell I was. I was physically abused by our own fans before and after games and hate mail came in but I had that Northern Ireland grit and just got on with it.”
Neill took Spurs from struggling against relegation to ninth in two seasons but it was never