All at Finn Harps were greatly saddened to learn of the death of our first captain in senior football John Young. John passed away in Altnagelvin hospital after an illness.
John had played for both Foyle Rovers and Derry City before playing for Harps in the 1968 FAI Junior Cup winning side. He then moved to Distillery in the Irish League. He re-joined Harps when we got senior status in 1969 and was appointed captain by then manager Patsy McGowan.
John would leave Harps at the end of the 1970/71 season, rejoining Derry City.
John was predeceased by his wife Mary, his daughter Therese and son John. Our sympathies are extended to his children Hilary, Jackie, Graham, Snga, Christine and Nicky and his siblings Sally, Mary, Catherine and Michael. All his grandchildren and his wider circle of family and friends.
I had the great pleasure of interviewing John back in 2010 and I have reproduced the article in full. We also had the pleasure of hosting him and his team-mates from 1968 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Junior Cup win at Finn Park.
John played for Foyle Rovers and Derry City, before playing for Harps in the FAI Junior Cup success of 1968. At Derry City, John was the understudy, for a season to legendary keeper Fred Stallard, so never got a chance to establish himself in the team. He first played for Harps against Valeview, in the Quarter-Final. “I was at the match as a spectator when Patsy got injured. He was a wild man, a mad hatter and he turned his back, making a save and got a whack on it. Tony McCallion was down on the card as the 12th man and they asked me to strip and go on in Patsy’s place. At the time I used to strap my wee finger to the next finger to give it support. Fran (Fields) took a look at me stripping and said ‘look we are going to put a man in goals with a broken finger’. We won 1 goal to nil and after the game we went for a beer or two and one of the other players told the opposition my name and that is why they raised a protest.”
After Harps won the cup, John signed for Distillery in the Irish League. While with Distillery he played for the Northern Irish Amateur team against England, alongside Peter Hutton (then of Coleraine) who would turn out to be one of his team-mates at Finn Park a season later. Distillery, got to the Irish Cup final that year but were defeated by Ards by four goals to two in a reply.
John met Patsy towards the end of that season “I was fed up travelling in the Irish League” he laughs, “so I decided to join Harps”. Even though he was an amateur John recalls “Distillery wouldn’t let me go and Harps paid £700 or £800 for me to get Distillery to allow me to leave. I was signed on semi-professional contract and Patsy made me club captain. I actually signed in the Coleraine Social Club.”
John led the side out for the first game in the league of Ireland not realising what lay ahead. Harps were soundly beaten by Shamrock Rovers. Asked whether anyone reminds him of it today, he says “my daughters have made it a standing joke in the house. When they are over they would ask me, what time is it on the clock and I always reply 10 to 2. They will laugh and say good he hasn’t forgotten.” John goes on to add “You know a good defence makes a goalkeeper and a goalkeeper makes a good defence. Harps problem on that opening day was there were too many players not good enough to play senior football.”
One of the highlights for John was scoring direct from a goalkick against Waterford in Kilcohan Park. “Aye, it was against Peter Thomas, who was one of the best keepers around. We got beaten by three goals to two and about ten minutes after I had scored, I did it again but it hit the crossbar this time.”
John also recalled the game against Drogheda in October 69 in the Lourdes Stadium “Ritchie Kelly kicked the ball out of the ground after the referee made Drogheda take a penalty three times. I saved it the first two times, but, the referee said I moved both times. I didn’t even dive to save the third one and we lost one nil!”
John did say “We were well looked after at Harps, probably too well looked after. When we played at home, there was a private room booked for us players in Keys Hotel in Stranorlar. We could order anything at all that we wanted to eat, unfortunately, there was also a big crowd of hangers on and they would also be getting a good feed on the club.”
John finished playing with Harps at the end of the 1970/71 season and moved to Derry City until they went out of the League in 1972.
