Town bid farewell to two great servants of the club
TOWN have been rocked by the deaths of two popular servants.
Following the passing of former manager Ian Ross at the age of 72, it has been announced former midfielder Mick Kennedy has died at the age of just 57.
Kennedy was a tough-tackling midfielder in Mick Buxton’s teams of 1980-81 and 1981-82.
Buxton signed the 19-year-old Kennedy from Halifax in the summer of 1980 and he took the place of skipper Peter Hart, who was surprisingly sold to Walsall.
He quickly became a regular, making 92 starts and three substitute appearances, scoring nine goals.
Kennedy was sold to Middlesbrough in the summer of 1982 and he made 68 appearances there over two seasons before joining Portsmouth, where he became captain and a massive favourite.
By the time Kennedy arrived at Fratton Park at the age of 23, he had already racked up more than 200 league appearances for Halifax, Town and Middlesbrough.
One of his earliest games for the former was in a 2-0 home victory over Portsmouth in February 1979.
When Alan Ball was appointed manager in the summer of 1984, he paid £100,000 to make Kennedy one of his first signings.
He added much-needed aggression to the centre of the pitch and following two nearmisses, finally helped Pompey return to Division One.
The big question for fans was whether they could stay there, but the job was made harder when, against both his and Ball’s wishes, Kennedy was sold to Bradford for £250,000 midway through the campaign.
Kennedy’s final game for Portsmouth was certainly a memorable one, though, with Southampton beaten 2-0 at The Dell. But Pompey would win just two more league games that season and many supporters still point to the sale of Kennedy – who was a Republic of Ireland international – as the reason for their relegation.
He would later team up with Ball again at Stoke, also featuring for Leicester, Luton, Chesterfield and Wigan before hanging up his boots.
Kennedy was honoured for his contribution to Portsmouth last year when he was inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.
Ross, meanwhile, took over as Town manager in succession to Eoin Hand in March 1992 and guided the club into the play-offs for the first time, where they lost in the semi-finals to Peterborough United.
The following season, Ross could finish no higher than 15th as Town struggled to recover from the play-off hangover, and he was replaced by Neil Warnock for the following campaign.
As a player, Ross was a talented defender with Liverpool.
Ross, brought up in Glasgow, signed for Bill Shankly having chosen the Reds ahead of Arsenal and Chelsea as a youngster in 1963 before penning professional forms two years later.
The defender then made his debut as a 19-year-old in January 1967 against Sheffield Wednesday.
During a seven-year senior career for Liverpool, Ross made 69 appearances and scored four goals. His most memorable outing came in the Fairs Cup clash at Bayern Munich in 1971 when he marked Franz Beckenbauer out of the game and found time to score the Reds’ only goal in a 1-1 draw.
He became a regular in the 1971-72 season before departing to Aston Villa in 1972 for what was then a record fee for a third-tier club.
“To see Ross go was losing a good friend,” said Shankly.
Ross went on to help Villa to successive promotions and was skipper of the side that won the League Cup in 1975.
He later managed in Iceland and also took charge of Huddersfield Town and Berwick Rangers.