by Trevor Keane
‘We would train the morning before a game and then have lunch. Afterwards Johnny would give his team talk, focusing on us and what he expected from us. He included everybody and asked them for their thoughts. He was never too worried about the opposition. He was one of the lads, but at the same time he would tell you off if he had to. He could switch into manager mode quite easily, but you always knew he was right. He knew the game inside out, and everyone in the squad had so much respect for him.
‘The team spirit under Johnny was great. As I said, he involved everyone, and he was very approachable. Even if you were in the squad and on the bench, he made sure you felt like you were part of the team. I remember one time we were training out at our base near the airport and Johnny arranged for Pelé, who was in the country with UNICEF, to come out and meet us. Pelé shook every one of our hands. It was fantastic.’
Jimmy Holmes, who is Ireland’s youngest-ever debutant, played thirty times for the national side before an injury during a challenge for the ball in an international game ended his career: ‘I remember the game. It was against Bulgaria in Sofia in 1979. It was very unfortunate. It was a 50–50 ball, but, you know, when it’s your country you don’t pull out of them. That was it for me.
‘In all I played for Ireland for eight years, and it was an amazing experience. Giles was the best manager I played under. He was a perfectionist and really looked after his body. And it showed, as he kept playing with Ireland until he was thirty-nine, which was some achievement.
‘The FAI did not have a lot of money, but they did the best they could. We sometimes used to get frustrated travelling with the press and fans, but there was always good banter. I remember Johnny would say to us that if a hotel was not great – and there were some dodgy hotels – we should show our professionalism on the pitch. Johnny brought a more professional approach and attitude to our game. He was a great man for pulling you aside and having a pep talk with you. Some players need that approach.’
John Wilkes senior, who would later coach under Giles at Shamrock Rovers, reckons that Ireland were maybe not ready to move forward as fast as they had in such a short space of time: ‘I think that when Johnny came in, Ireland was still in the doldrums internationally. The FAI had set about revamping the set-up and change was taking place. In those days if you were at an Ireland match the fans would cheer when the goalkeeper kicked the ball out long to the centre-forward. However, Johnny wanted to play football a different way, and the supporters might not have been ready for it. They were not used to seeing the keeper roll the ball to the defender and build from the back. It was about possession and passing, but Johnny got a lot of stick for it, as it was perceived as negative football. [Irish football was used to a kick and rush game where the idea was to get the ball to the front men as fast as possible, but Johnny’s system was to keep possession, with the idea that if you had the ball then the other team could not score.] The perception was that Johnny’s system was to kill games off, hold onto the ball and play for draws, but the truth is his teams never played for 0–0 draws. He wanted to win, but win playing in a certain way. I still think it was unfortunate he left when he did. I think if he had been there for 1982 when we lost out on goal difference he would have made a difference, but in the end his private life was being affected by the public criticisms.’
While he was manager of Ireland, Giles also managed West Bromwich Albion and Shamrock Rovers. His time at Albion was very successful, with the club being promoted to the First Division in 1976 and then not only staying afloat, but finishing an impressive seventh in his first season managing in England’s top division.
John Wilkes senior was a youth-team coach with Shamrock Rovers and was part of the new-look backroom team under Giles: ‘I first encountered Johnny through my work with youth-team football at Cherry Orchard. I had run a successful youth team there, and a lot of players from the 1975 team had been signed by Shamrock Rovers, so I had a reputation and was known in youth football. I had been recommended to Johnny, and we spoke about what he was trying to achieve and set up. He had taken the reins at Shamrock Rovers under the Kilcoynes [the club’s owners] and wanted to re-establish the youth setup. Johnny took the job at a large financial loss, especially compared to what he could have earned in England. The idea of his appointment was right, but I don’t think the investment was there to back it up. Johnny believed in the project, and his heart was definitely in it. He wanted to get the youth scheme up and running, with players who would play football a certain way. He wanted to play a passing game, but the pitches in Ireland in those days were not suitable for that kind of approach. Johnny had come from a full-time background in England, and his preparation and training were way ahead of what we had here. In those days part-time footballers only trained twice a week – Johnny changed that, though. Johnny brought a more professional and full-time approach to the training set-up: even though the players were part-time, the commitment was full-time. Players would come in at weekends for training, and on Sundays before a game we would have a light training session followed by lunch followed by the match. It was unheard of in those days.
‘The likes of Johnny Fullam, Alan O’Neill, Alan Campbell, Pierce O’Leary and Jim Beglin all came through the system, and they understood what Johnny was trying to achieve and how he wanted to play. It was a different style of management for these players. Johnny liked to talk calmly and constructively. This was new to a lot of people. Also, his retention of information was unbelievable. He could remember aspects of a game and analyse it as if he had a monitor in front of him. It was an interesting and illuminating time, especially from the coaching side of things. Sadly, it all comes back to results. With the setup that was in place Rovers were expected to win everything in sight. Results were hard to come by, and in the end he turned to the big names such as Ray Treacy, Eamon Dunphy and Eoin Hand to help the team fight and scrap for wins.
‘When there was no sign of that dominance, I think people, including Johnny himself, became disillusioned, and in the end he left Rovers by mutual consent. You would think that it would have been good for the League to see a team set up professionally and have a good youth set-up, but there was a lot of opposition to what Rovers were trying to achieve. Barriers were put up to stop us. Professional apprentices were prevented from playing in the local Leagues. Then when a good player came through the system, they were sold to fund the project, the likes of Alan Campbell, Pierce O’Leary and Jim Beglin all being sold on. Personally, it was a great experience working with Johnny, and my time in the game afterwards at schoolboy level was pretty successful, much of which I attribute to what I learned from him. He was a superb person to work with.’
JOHNNY GILES THE FOOTBALL PUNDIT
Since retiring from the everyday hustle of football management, Giles has settled into a career as a pundit and forms part of the team for RTÉ’s Champions League coverage and also their Premier League show. Giles also writes columns for The Evening Herald , a Dublin-based newspaper, as well as being involved in radio. His columns and punditry are renowned for their honesty and insightfulness. His relationship with the shows’ other pundit, Eamon Dunphy, forms the basis for the success of both shows.
Here are some of the more entertaining Johnny Giles quotations from his role as football pundit:
Johnny Giles achieved fantastic success as a player and as a manager, and then made a success of his career in TV. It is a testament to the man that he will always be remembered as one of Ireland’s most successful gentlemen of football.
JOHNNY GILES’ CLUB MANAGERIAL HONOURS RECORD:
FAI Cup – Shamrock Rovers 1978
JOHNNY GILES’ IRELAND RECORD:
Total number of games in charge: 38
Total number of wins: 15 (ratio 39.47%)
Total number of draws: 9 (ratio 23.68%)
Total number of losses: 14 (ratio 36.84%)
Biggest win: 4–0 v . Turkey
Biggest defeat: 4–1 v . Czechoslovakia
Longest run without defeat: 8 games
8
ALAN KELLY SENIOR
Alan Kelly senior will long be remembered as one of the true legends of Irish football. A fantastic goalkeeper who played at the highest level in England, Kelly was a hero to fans wherever he played. Whether it was with Drumcondra in Dublin, Preston North End in England, the Republic of Ireland or, later in his career as a coach with DC United in America, Kelly always demonstrated devotion and loyalty to a game he clearly loved.
Over the years Ireland has produced some fantastic goal-keepers. From Gerry Peyton and Packie Bonner right through to Shay Given, it seems to be in the genes of Irish football to produce goalkeepers of world-class ability. However, to many people Alan Kelly is the father of Irish keepers.
While footballing siblings are not uncommon, and there are a number of sons who have followed their fathers into football, it is very rare to come across a footballing dynasty and rarer still to find a goalkeeping dynasty. However, that is what Alan Kelly senior and his sons achieved. Alan senior and his youngest son Alan were full Ireland internationals while eldest son Gary was an Under-21 and B international; these achievements, coupled with his own net-minding talents, ensured that Alan senior would long be remembered in footballing circles.
Kelly is also the only Ireland manager to have a 100 per cent record, winning his only game in charge in 1980. Other commitments prevented him from taking the job on full-time, and just as with Seán Thomas in the 1970s, we will never know how successful he could have been.
EARLY LIFE AND PRESTON NORTH END
Born in Dublin in July 1936, Alan Kelly began his career with Bray Wanderers before making the short move to Dublin to join Drumcondra. A two-year stint with the north Dublin side saw him impress enough to make the move to England with Preston North End. Preston would become Kelly’s life – he spent fifteen years there as a goalkeeper before moving into coaching and later management with the club. In all he made 513 appearances for Preston, with 447 in League games which to this day remains a club record. However, it could have been much more had a shoulder injury, suffered in a game against Bristol City in 1973, not curtailed his career at the age of thirty-seven, considered young by today’s goalkeeping standards.
Kelly made his Preston North End debut on 28 January 1961 in an FA Cup tie against Swansea Town, and he became first-choice goalkeeper the following season. John O’Neill, who first played with Kelly at Drumcondra and was then part of the transfer deal that took both players to Preston North End, reflects on his time with Kelly: ‘I first got to know Alan when we were both at Drumcondra. We played in the first team together. I was a defender and, as everyone knows, Alan was a goalkeeper. We actually went to Preston North End at the same time. The transfer came about at the end of the 1958 season, Drumcondra having won the League that year.
‘At the end of the season I went to the club to collect my wages. I spoke to the chairman, and he said to me, “How do you fancy playing in England?” I said that I would like to. The chairman then told me that Spurs and Preston North End were interested. Spurs wanted me on my own, while Preston wanted both me and Alan Kelly. I decided to go to Preston with Alan, as I figured it would be easier to settle in with someone I knew.
‘The done thing in those days was that the chairman would go and talk to your father, so he spoke to my mine and to Alan’s, and the transfer was approved by them. A fee was then agreed with the clubs, and we were told we would get paid a set amount – I can’t actually remember how much – and if we made twenty first-team appearances it would get reviewed, and then again if we played fifty games.
‘For the first twelve months at Preston we actually lodged together, sharing a room. It’s funny, but before that, even though we played together at Drumcondra, we didn’t know each other that well. I was twenty-two and Alan was twenty-one, so there was not much between us, but I lived in Crumlin and Alan lived in Bray, so we trained and played together and then went our separate ways. Even stranger is the fact that we were both apprentices with the same plastering firm, but we never actually worked a job together.
‘When we signed, Cliff Briton was the manager, and I thought he was a good boss, but, sadly, after three years of his being in charge, the club was relegated and he was sacked. Unfortunately, my own career with Preston North End did not last too long, and in the end I only played about fifty games before I moved on. Later I received an offer from Australia to go over there to work and play.
‘Alan had a hard job when he first arrived at Preston, as Fred Else was the keeper, and he was a club legend and had played for the England B team. In those days the set-up for matches was a bit different. At that time clubs would only take one goalkeeper to away games, so Alan would often be left behind to play with the reserves. But he was very dedicated. He never took a drink, he never smoked and he never stayed out late. He was very professional and determined. And he worked hard at training and eventually grabbed his chance when Fred went to Blackburn.
‘We lived closed to the ground, and in those days you would train between ten and twelve in the morning and between two and four in the afternoon. We always had to get the bus to training, as I was always bloody late getting up. Outside of football we would play snooker and golf and go to dances together. He was a lovely man, and I can’t say a bad word about him. Alan was a very private man, almost shy. He seldom had a lot to say, but he was never rude, and, you know, I never heard him curse.’
Alan remains a huge part of Preston North End’s history. He made a club record 513 appearances, and one of the highlights of his time there was the 1964 FA Cup final defeat by West Ham United. Preston twice led in the game, but a Ronnie Boyce goal in the ninetieth minute denied Kelly a winner’s medal.
Alan was named Preston’s first Player of the Year in 1967–68 and finally got his hands on a medal in English football when he won a Third Division Championship medal in 1970–71 to add to the League winner’s medal and FAI Cup medals he won with Drumcondra.
IRELAND CAREER AND MANAGEMENT
Alan Kelly was already an international goalkeeper by the time he made his Preston North End debut in 1961. In a seventeen-year career, he won the first of forty-seven caps in a friendly against West Germany in 1956 at the tender age of twenty. Having successfully defended against all German attempts on goal in that match, Kelly kept his place on the team for a World Cup qualifying game against England at Wembley. Unfortunately England thrashed Ireland 5–1.
It epitomises the managing policy of the FAI and their committee in that period that after this defeat Kelly was left out of the side for a five-year period, and a string of other goalkeepers were used in Irish games including Tommy Godwin, Jimmy O’Neill and Noel Dwyer. This inconsistency in the selection process did not help the development of the team or individual players, and this lack of direction was proof, if it was needed, that a full-time manager was the only way for the Irish team to successfully develop.
In 1961 Preston were demoted from the First Division and Jimmy Milne was appointed as the new manager of the team. Under Milne’s regime Kelly became the first choice goalkeeper. This consistency at club level saw him finally reach his true potential and saw him regain his place on the Irish team. He won his third cap in a 3–2 defeat by Austria at Dalymount Park in April 1962 but, despite the loss, managed to keep his place for the next nine games, during which time Ireland reached the European Championship quarter-finals. Despite this he was left out of the squad to play the qualifiers for the 1966 World Cup finals in England.
Towards the end of the 1960s Kelly regained his place on the team and in October 1972 became the first goalkeeper to captain Ireland. Unfortunately that game finished in a 2–1 defeat to the Soviet Union.
Following his forced retirement from football due to a shoulder injury, Kelly joined North End’s coaching staff and was eventually promoted to assistant manager under Nobby Stiles in 1977. In 1980 he briefly managed the Republic of Ireland side, presiding over the team for
one match, against Switzerland. The game was a one-sided affair, with Ireland dominating the Swiss. Don Givens and Gerry Daly scored the goals that gave Kelly a 2–0 win.
His assistant manager on the day, Eoin Hand, recalls, ‘When Alan Kelly became manager he got in touch with me. We were good friends from playing together for Ireland and had always got on well. He asked me if I would be his assistant. Alan had actually been Johnny Giles’ assistant [Kelly stood in for Johnny on two occasions, and did not taste defeat in those matches either, as Ireland won both], so all the players knew him well, and he had their respect. However, Alan was still involved with Preston North End, and the club put a bit of pressure on him, I think. He also had a sports business in Preston, and in the end he decided not to take the role full-time and to return to Preston.’
Gerry Peyton, who played under Alan in his only game as Ireland manager, remembers, ‘We beat Switzerland that day. We were missing a lot of big names, but, as it turned out, we won, and Alan Kelly is still the only manager to have a 100 per cent record to this day. As a goalkeeper coach and assistant manager he was very well liked. He introduced some good exercises for the keepers, and he was a legend of the Irish game. For me, he is the best goalkeeper ever to have pulled on an Ireland shirt. There was an awful lot of respect for him within the team.
‘As a goalkeeper coach now myself, I understand more than most that there is a lot of psychology involved in preparing keepers for games. The right word at the right time can really help a keeper, and Alan was very good at that. He would never put you under too much pressure. Another thing about goalkeepers is timing, knowing when to train hard and when to push players. Alan always had good knowledge of our opponents and what we would face.’
