Fomer Robins striker who was a runner for the Echo dies at 64
FORMER Cheltenham Town striker Kieran Hehir has died at the age of 64 after a battle with cancer.
He attended Cheltenham Grammar School and spent time with both Bristol City and Bournemouth as a younger.
As a boy Hehir would attend matches at Whaddon Road and used to cycle from the ground to the Echo offices with Derek Goddard’s newspaper copy for inclusion in the Saturday evening green sports edition.
He was playing for St Mark’s CA in the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League when Robins boss Denis Allen invited him to play for the reserves.
His first team debut was an FA Trophy first qualifying round tie against Ferndale Athletic on October 12, 1974, but he then returned to St Mark’s.
Hehir was persuaded to re-join the Robins towards the end of the season and made his Southern League debut in a 0-0 draw away to Corby Town.
The following season he appeared for the reserves in the West Midland League before being called back into the first team for a home match against Redditch United.
He scored a hat-trick in the 3-1 win and held down a regular first team spot alongside Dave Lewis in attack for the remainder of the season, scoring another hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Bar-net.
Hehir signed his first professional contract with the club at the start of 1976-77, which turned out to be his most successful season with the club.
Hehir and Lewis scored 38 goals between them as Cheltenham finished runners-up to Worcester City in Southern League Division One and achieved promotion back to the Premier Division after an absence of eight years.
Hehir played regularly in the first half of the following season, but spent part of the second half on loan to Barry Town in South Wales.
His 1978-79 campaign was disrupted by injury and after making his final appearance against Trowbridge Town on October 28, 1978, he departed for Evesham United in January 1979.
He made a total of 89 starts for Cheltenham, along with nine appearances from the bench, scoring 37 goals.
By the time he joined Evesham his career had begun to take over from football as Hehir progressed through the export and sales department of Walker Crossweller (now Mira Showers) and he returned to playing more local football with St Mark’s during the 1980s.
He later worked for Lafarge in Kent and would regularly come to watch Cheltenham play at venues such as Ebbsfleet United and Sittingbourne.
In 2006, he moved to Thailand, working and travelling extensively in the Far East.
Thanks to Paul Godfrey and Cheltenham Town Football club for Kieran Hehir’s career statistics.