Alexander Derek Dougan (20 January 1938 – 24 June 2007) was a
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
international
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
, football manager, football chairman, pundit, and writer. He was also known by his nickname, "The Doog". He was capped by Northern Ireland at
schoolboy,
youth
Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...
, Amateur, and
'B' team level, before he won 43 caps in a 15-year career for the senior team from 1958 to 1973, scoring eight international goals and featuring in the
1958 FIFA World Cup. He also played in the
Shamrock Rovers XI v Brazil exhibition match in July 1973, which he also helped to organise.
A strong and physical
forward, he began his career at
Distillery in his native
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
. He helped Distillery to win the
Irish Cup
The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...
in 1956, before he won a £4,000 move to English
First Division side
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
in August 1957. He was sold on to
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
in March 1959 for a fee of £15,000, and played for the club in the
1960 FA Cup Final
The 1960 FA Cup Final was the 79th final of the world's oldest domestic football cup competition, the FA Cup. It took place on 7 May 1960 at Wembley Stadium in London. The match was contested by Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
...
despite handing in a transfer request the day before the final. He moved on to
Aston Villa for £15,000 in July 1961, but struggled with injuries during a two-season stay at
Villa Park
Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway station ...
. He dropped into the
Third Division to join
Peterborough United
Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...
in 1963, who paid a £21,000 transfer fee. He returned to the top flight in November 1965 after being sold to
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
for £26,000. He was sold to
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
for a £50,000 fee in March 1967, and helped the club to win promotion out of the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
in 1966–67, to lift the
Texaco Cup
The Texaco Cup, officially known as the International League Board Competition, was an association football competition started in 1970, involving sides from England, Scotland, and Ireland that had not qualified for European competitions.
It wa ...
in 1970 and the
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
in
1974, and also played on the losing side of the
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
final. He also spent two summers in the United States playing for the club's sister teams, the
Los Angeles Wolves and the
Kansas City Spurs
The Kansas City Spurs were an American professional soccer team who played in the North American Soccer League, based in Kansas City, Missouri. They played their home games at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, former home of the Kansas City Chiefs, ...
, who he helped to win the
United Soccer Association
The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...
and
NASL International Cup respectively. He retired in 1975, having scored a total of 279 goals in 661 league and cup appearances across 18 seasons in
the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
.
He was appointed player-manager at
Southern League Premier Division
The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English foot ...
side
Kettering Town
Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...
in 1975, a position he retained for two years. Whilst at the club he negotiated the first shirt sponsorship deal in English football. He chaired the
Professional Footballers' Association
The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. Founded in 1907, it is the world's oldest professional sport trade union, and has over 5,000 members.
The aims of ...
(PFA) from 1970 to 1978, and helped to further players' rights and set up the first PFA player awards in 1974. Also throughout the 1970s he became a football pundit and writer, and became particularly well known for his part in
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
's coverage of the
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
and
1974 FIFA World Cup. After fronting a consortium that took Wolverhampton Wanderers out of liquidation, he served the club as chairman from August 1982 to January 1985. He stood as an independent politician in the
Belfast East constituency in 1997, and later became involved in the
UK Independence Party
The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...
.
Club career
Distillery
Alexander Derek Dougan was born in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
on 20 January 1938, the son of Jackie and Josie Dougan.
His father worked at
Belfast docks.
His grandfather, Sandy, had played at half-back for
Linfield, and two of Sandy's brothers also played for some of the leading clubs in Belfast.
As a child, Dougan would usually spend between four and eight hours a day playing football in the street. His family were poor, and later in life Dougan joked that "on the street where I lived, if you paid your rent three weeks on the trot, the police used to come and see where you got the money from". As a teenager he spent 18 months working at a toy factory whilst playing amateur football for Cregagh Boys.
He also trained with Linfield, but could not break into any of their junior teams.
He instead joined
Distillery in 1953.
Manager
Jimmy McIntosh
James McLaughlin McIntosh (5 April 1918 – 4 April 2000) was a Scottish professional association football, footballer and manager. As a player McIntosh was a fast, strong, stocky forward.[Irish Cup
The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...]
first round draw with
Glentoran
Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882.
History
Early history
In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...
.
Maurice Tadman
Maurice Roy Tadman (28 June 1921 – 26 November 1994) was an English footballer who played as a centre forward.
He began his career in non-league football with Bexleyheath & Welling before playing alongside his older brother George at Char ...
, who succeeded McIntosh as the club's manager in the summer of 1955, preferred to use Dougan as a target man centre-forward, as Dougan's height made him adept at winning and flicking on headers in the opposition penalty area.
Whilst playing part-time for Distillery he also worked at the
Harland and Wolff
Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...
shipbuilding company.
Though the
maximum wage
A maximum wage, also often called a wage ceiling, is a legal limit on how much income an individual can earn. It is a prescribed limitation which can be used to effect change in an economic structure, but its effects are unrelated to those of minim ...
in England discouraged many of Belfast's top players from leaving their hometown, Dougan was determined to leave for the
English Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...
at the earliest opportunity, particularly so following the death of his mother in June 1955.
He began to attract scouts from England after helping Distillery beat
Glentoran
Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882.
History
Early history
In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...
1–0 in the second replay of the
1956 final of the Irish Cup at
Windsor Park
Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual renta ...
.
He played mostly at half-back in the
1956–57 season as Distillery finished sixth in the
Irish League and ended up as runners-up in the
Ulster Cup
The Ulster Cup was an annual football competition held by the Irish Football League for senior clubs.
History
Beginning in 1949, it was held on fifty-one occasions until being suspended after the 1998/99 season and discontinued after a one-of ...
,
City Cup
The City Cup was a rugby league competition involving Australian premiership teams. The post season tournament was a regular feature in the years 1912–1925. City Cups were also played in 1937, 1942 and 1959.
The inaugural city cup was contested ...
, and
County Antrim Shield
The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster Fo ...
.
Portsmouth
Dougan had trials at
Preston North End and
Bury
Bury may refer to:
*The burial of human remains
*-bury, a suffix in English placenames
Places England
* Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village
* Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire
** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
, before he was signed by
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
for a fee of £4,000 in August 1957.
"Pompey" struggled to a 20th-place finish in the
First Division in the
1957–58 season, and some of his teammates resented Dougan for what he himself felt was the constructive criticism he offered in the dressing room.
He made his first team debut, providing an assist for
Jackie Henderson in a 3–0 victory over
Manchester United at
Old Trafford.
He scored his first senior goal for the club in a 1–1 draw with
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
. New manager
Freddie Cox
Frederick James Arthur Cox DFC (1 November 1920 – 7 August 1973) was an English football player and manager. Playing as a winger, he scored 25 goals from 182 appearances in the Football League either side of the Second World War, and was on t ...
, who succeeded
Eddie Lever at
Fratton Park in 1958, took the club to relegation with a last place finish in
1958–59 season, though Dougan would miss much of the season with an ankle injury.
Blackburn Rovers
Dougan was sold on to
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
for a fee of £15,000 in March 1959.
He scored on his Rovers debut in a 1–1 draw away to
Arsenal at
Highbury
Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington
in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads.
The manor house was sit ...
.
He scored twice on the opening day of the
1959–60 season, a 4–0 victory over
Fulham, which began a sequence of five wins and a draw from Rovers's first six matches, at the end of which the club were in second-place and Dougan tallied eleven goals, four of which came in a 6–2 victory over
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
.
Though their league campaign petered out to an eventual 17th-place finish, Rovers reached the
1960 FA Cup Final
The 1960 FA Cup Final was the 79th final of the world's oldest domestic football cup competition, the FA Cup. It took place on 7 May 1960 at Wembley Stadium in London. The match was contested by Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
...
at
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
after Dougan scored the winning goal past
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...
in the semi-finals.
However, he did not enjoy his time at
Ewood Park, and later wrote that "the dourness of the club matched that of the town. I could not shake off the depression that caused me to wake each day regretting that I had to go to the ground. Life was grey and monotonous".
This led to him handing in a transfer request the day before the final, which he later admitted was an occasion where his "vanity triumphed over common sense".
He was not at full fitness in the final itself, and had a quiet game as Blackburn lost 3–0 to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
He opened the
1960–61 season with a hat-trick in a 3–0 win over Manchester United and went on to withdraw his transfer request.
Aston Villa
Dougan was signed by
Aston Villa in July 1961 for a fee of £15,000.
He was signed by manager
Joe Mercer
Joseph Mercer, OBE (9 August 1914 – 9 August 1990) was an English football player and manager. Mercer, who played as a defender for Everton and Arsenal in his footballing career, also went on to manage Aston Villa, Manchester City and Engl ...
as a replacement for
Gerry Hitchens, who had been sold on to
Inter Milan
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...
earlier in the summer for £85,000.
Teammate
Peter McParland
Peter James McParland MBE (born 25 April 1934) is a former professional footballer.
Club career
Dundalk
McParland was born in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland. He was spotted playing for Dundalk in the League of Ireland by Aston Villa ma ...
later commented that "when Derek came to us at Aston Villa I think it was at a time when he was not taking the game particularly seriously".
After returning from watching his "Villans" teammates win the
1961 League Cup Final at
Villa Park
Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway station ...
on 5 September, Dougan was a passenger in a car accident which killed fellow passenger Malcolm Williams and left Dougan with a broken arm and head injuries; driver and teammate
Bobby Thomson
Robert Brown Thomson (October 25, 1923 – August 16, 2010) was a Scottish-born American professional baseball player, nicknamed the "Staten Island Scot". He was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants (1946–53, 1957), M ...
was charged but found 'Not Guilty' of careless driving.
In November 2010 – three years after Dougan's death, Thomson claimed that Dougan had drunkenly pulled a
deerstalker
A deerstalker is a type of cap that is typically worn in rural areas, often for hunting, especially deer stalking. Because of the cap's popular association with the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, it has become stereotypical headgear f ...
hat over his eyes, causing him to crash the car. Dougan recovered after three months on the sidelines and ended the
1961–62 season with 12 goals in 27 matches.
He twisted his knee midway through the
1962–63 campaign after slipping in the street, and ended the season with 14 goals from 33 games.
Peterborough United
Dougan dropped down to the
Third Division to join
Peterborough United
Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...
for a £21,000 fee in the summer of 1963.
He later admitted that "I had made a mistake in going to the Third Division when I was a First Division player".
The move did though have its benefits, as the club's physiotherapist managed to diagnose and eventually correct an ankle injury that had troubled Dougan for the previous five years.
He scored 20 goals in 38 league games in the
1963–64 season, and at the end of the campaign manager
Jack Fairbrother
John Fairbrother (16 August 1917 – October 1999, born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire) was an English professional football goalkeeper, best known for his time at Newcastle United shortly after the Second World War where he won a FA C ...
was replaced by
Gordon Clark
Gordon Haddon Clark (August 31, 1902 – April 9, 1985) was an American philosopher and Calvinist theologian. He was a leading figure associated with presuppositional apologetics and was chairman of the Philosophy Department at Butler Univer ...
, who Dougan said "renewed my sense of vocation".
He then scored seven goals in the club's
1964–65 run to the sixth round of the FA Cup, including one in their 2–1 win over top-flight Arsenal at
London Road.
Peterborough's league promotion campaign failed despite their cup exploits, causing Dougan to remark that "after playing at
Stamford Bridge it was not easy to go to places like
Gillingham on a cold Tuesday evening, where they are waiting for you with their sleeves rolled up".
Leicester City
Dougan returned to the First Division when he signed for
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
in May 1965 for a £26,000 fee.
However, he had a difficult relationship with manager
Matt Gillies
Matthew Muirhead Gillies (12 August 1921 – 24 December 1998) was a Scottish football player and manager who played for, captained, coached and managed Leicester City for a total of 15 years between 1952–1955 and 1956–1968. He is the club's ...
despite being the first choice striker at
Filbert Street
Filbert Street was a football stadium in Leicester, England, which served as the home of Leicester City F.C. from 1891 until 2002. Although officially titled the City Business Stadium in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively by ...
.
He scored 19 goals in 37 league games in the
1965–66 season to help the team to a seventh-place finish.
He scored 21 goals in 35 league and cup games in the
1966–67 season, but his 'free spirit' nature frustrated Gillies, who sanctioned Dougan's sale despite his good form.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
In March 1967, Dougan dropped into the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
after being signed by Wolverhampton Wanderers manager
Ronnie Allen
Ronald Allen (15 January 1929 – 9 June 2001) was an English international football player and manager. He was a professional footballer for nineteen years, between 1946 and 1964, making 638 appearances in the Football League, and scoring 2 ...
for a £50,000 fee.
He marked his home debut on 25 March by scoring a hat-trick against
Hull City
Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...
.
He ended the
1966–67 season with nine goals in 11 games for Wolves, and helped the club to secure promotion to the First Division.
He spent the summer of 1967 in the United States playing for the
Los Angeles Wolves in the
United Soccer Association
The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...
, scoring three goals in eleven games to help Wolves to win the West Division title and then captained the side and scored a goal as they beat the
Washington Whips
The Washington Whips were a soccer team based in Washington, D.C. that played in the United Soccer Association ( USA). The league was made up of teams imported from foreign leagues. The Washington Whips were the Aberdeen F.C. from Scotland. Th ...
6–5 in the
USA Final at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Strike partner
Ernie Hunt
Roger Patrick "Ernie" Hunt (17 March 1943 – 20 June 2018) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Swindon Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton, Coventry City, Doncaster Rovers and Bristol City, and for the Los Angel ...
was sold to
Everton for £80,000 in September 1967, which reduced the effectiveness of the Wolves attack, though Dougan still managed to finish as the club's top-scorer with 17 goals in 40 appearances across the
1967–68 campaign as Wolves retained their top-flight status with a 17th-place finish.
In November 1968,
Bill McGarry
William Harry McGarry (10 June 1927 – 15 March 2005) was an England international association footballer and manager who spent 40 years in the professional game. He had a reputation for toughness, both as a player and as a manager.
A right- ...
replaced Allen as manager, and Dougan later described the seven years he spent playing for McGarry as "the most traumatic of my career".
Nevertheless, Dougan's form remained good, and he finished the
1968–69 season with 14 goals from 44 games as Wolves posted a 16th-place finish.
He spent the summer of
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
in the United States as the club again entered the American leagues, this time calling themselves the
Kansas City Spurs
The Kansas City Spurs were an American professional soccer team who played in the North American Soccer League, based in Kansas City, Missouri. They played their home games at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, former home of the Kansas City Chiefs, ...
and playing in the
North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to:
*North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league
*North American Soccer League (2011–2017)
The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...
, where they won the NASL International Cup.
Wolves enjoyed an excellent start to the
1969–70 season, winning seven of their opening eight games, but fell away to a mid-table finish after the shock retirement of 24-year old forward
Peter Knowles, who left the game to become a full-time
Jehovah's Witness
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
volunteer.
Dougan had a poor season, limited to just ten goals in 33 games due to injuries and an eight-week suspension, then the longest ban of the post-war era, for verbally abusing a linesman in a home defeat to Everton.
The sending off by referee
Keith Walker caused upheaval in the stands, occasioning the injury of 84 people. In the return fixture at
Goodison Park
Goodison Park is a association football, football stadium in the Walton, Liverpool, Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area ...
, he suffered a clash of heads with full-back
Keith Newton and had to undergo major re-constructive surgery and was out of action for two months.
McGarry did not speak to Dougan during his two-month absence, but Dougan decided against issuing a transfer request as he did not want to further his reputation as a journeyman player.
Wolves finished fourth in the
1970–71 season, with Dougan claiming 12 goals from 25 league games as he was rotated throughout the campaign with
Hugh Curran
Hugh Patrick Curran (born 25 September 1943 in Carstairs, Lanarkshire) is a Scottish former footballer who spent the majority of his career in the English Football League. He played in five full international matches for Scotland between 1969 a ...
and
Bobby Gould
Robert Hewitt Gould (born 12 June 1946) is an English former footballer and manager.
Early life
Gould was born in Wyken, Coventry, Warwickshire on 12 June 1946. He is the son of Henry Gould and Helen McKellar Gould (née Morton). He spent h ...
.
Wolves also won the inaugural
Texaco Cup
The Texaco Cup, officially known as the International League Board Competition, was an association football competition started in 1970, involving sides from England, Scotland, and Ireland that had not qualified for European competitions.
It wa ...
after beating
Heart of Midlothian 3–2 on aggregate in the final.
The following season, he formed an understanding with
John Richards that teammate
Derek Parkin
Derek Parkin (born 2 January 1948) is an English former football player who made a record number of appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers (609). He also played for Huddersfield Town and Stoke City as well as the England under-23 national s ...
described as the "best partnership in Europe", which helped to boost Dougan's scoring tally and make Wolves one of the top teams in the country during the early 1970s.
They qualified for the
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
, and Dougan scored a hat-trick in a first round 7–1 aggregate victory over Portuguese side
Académica.
Wolves then progressed past Dutch side
Den Haag
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
by the same score, beat East German side
Carl Zeiss Jena 4–0 on aggregate, and overcome Italian giants
Juventus 3–2 on aggregate before knocking out
Ferencváro of Hungary 4–3 on aggregate to reach
the final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
.
There they lost 3–2 on aggregate to fellow English side
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
, "Spurs" goalkeeper
Pat Jennings
Patrick Anthony Jennings (born 12 June 1945) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played 119 international matches for Northern Ireland in an international career which lasted for over 22 years. D ...
putting in a number of saves at
White Hart Lane
White Hart Lane was a football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition. ...
to deny Dougan and Richards from levelling the tie after the first leg at
Molineux ended in a 2–1 defeat.
Wolves finished ninth in the league in the
1971–72 season, but managed to beat
Leeds United
Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...
on the final day of the season to prevent them from reaching league champions
Derby County
Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group.
Founded in 188 ...
's point tally, Dougan scoring his 24th goal of the season to secure a 2–1 win at Molineux.
He scored 19 goals in 51 appearances in the
1972–73 campaign, helping the club to a fifth-place league finish and to the semi-finals of the FA Cup and
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
.
They went on to beat Arsenal 3–1 at Highbury in the
FA Cup third-place play-off match, which was the penultimate match of an unsuccessful five-year experiment.
He scored 15 goals in 50 appearances in the
1973–74 season, and helped Wolves to finally win a trophy. They beat
Halifax Town
FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...
,
Tranmere Rovers
Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...
(after a replay),
Exeter City
Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...
,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, and
Norwich City
Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...
to reach the
League Cup final. They beat
Manchester City 2–1 in the final to secure the club's first trophy in 14 years.
Dougan struggled with back injuries in the
1974–75 campaign, and after being limited to just six appearances throughout the season he announced his retirement in 1975.
He was granted a testimonial game against a
Don Revie
Donald George Revie OBE (10 July 1927 – 26 May 1989) was an England international footballer and manager, best known for his successful spell with Leeds United from 1961 until 1974, which immediately preceded his appointment as England manage ...
International XI in October 1975, which ended in a 0–0 draw.
Kettering Town
Dougan was appointed player-manager at
Southern League Premier Division
The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English foot ...
side
Kettering Town
Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...
in 1975, and immediately set on former Wolves teammate
Brian Thompson
Brian Earl Thompson (born August 28, 1959) is an American actor. His career began with a small role in the 1984 film ''The Terminator''. He played the villainous "Night Slasher" in the 1986 film '' Cobra''. His first named role was on ''Werew ...
as his assistant.
Goalkeeper
Gordon Livsey
Gordon William Livsey (born 24 January 1947) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper in the Football League for Wrexham, Chester and Hartlepool United
Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional assoc ...
remembered Dougan as a great motivator, but tactically limited.
Dougan negotiated a four-figure shirt sponsorship with Kettering Tyres, which was the first such deal in England.
After its use in the Southern League Premier Division match against
Bath City
Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset, England. The club is affiliated to the Somerset FA and currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club have ...
on 24 January 1976 the FA demanded that the club remove the sponsor's logo threatening a fine of £1000, and were not impressed when Dougan initially attempted to circumvent the FA's demands by shortening the branding 'Kettering Tyres' to simply 'Kettering T'.
The logo was removed, though in June 1977 the FA decreed that a 2.5 square inch logo would be permitted in the future provided it was not "detrimental to the image of the game".
He led the "Poppies" to a third-place league finish and the Third Round of the FA Cup in
1976–77.
He helped to improve the career prospects of many of his players, particularly
Billy Kellock, who went on to play over 250 games in the Football League after leaving Kettering in 1979.
Dougan left the club after chairman John Nash resigned in June 1977.
International career
Dougan represented
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
at
schoolboy,
youth
Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...
, amateur and
'B' level as a wing-half and centre-defender. He made his senior international debut under
Peter Doherty in 1–0 win over
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
during the
1958 FIFA World Cup on 8 June 1958.
He had won nine caps before he joined Peterborough in 1962, when the drop to Third Division football left him out of international contention for the next three years.
Bertie Peacock
John Robert 'Bertie' Peacock MBE (29 September 1928 – 22 July 2004) was a Northern Ireland international footballer and manager who played for Celtic.
Playing career
After starting his career with local side Coleraine F.C., Peacock moved on ...
returned him to the team following his transfer to First Division Leicester City in 1965, and he missed just three of the next 37 internationals.
He was named as captain when
Terry Neill
William John Terence Neill (8 May 1942 – 28 July 2022) was a Northern Irish football player and manager. A centre-back, he captained and later managed Arsenal, guiding the club to a European final in 1980 and three consecutive FA Cup final ...
succeeded
Billy Bingham
William Laurence Bingham (5 August 1931 – 9 June 2022) was a Northern Ireland international footballer and football manager.
As a player, his first professional club was Glentoran, whom he played for between 1948 and 1950. Making the move ...
as manager in 1971.
He made his final appearance for Northern Ireland on 14 February 1973 in a
1974 FIFA World Cup qualifier against
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
.
He won a total of 43 senior caps and scored eight goals in a 15-year international career, but despite playing alongside
George Best
George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest p ...
for nine of these years Northern Ireland did not qualify for a major tournament after the 1958 FIFA World Cup.
An advocate of an All-Ireland soccer team, Dougan was also one of six Northern Ireland internationals to feature in the
Shamrock Rovers XI v Brazil exhibition match in July 1973; the "Shamrock Rovers XI" was a pseudonym for an All-Ireland team, which also featured
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
internationals.
He scored one of the goals for Rovers in the 4–3 defeat. Both the Northern Ireland-based
Irish Football Association
The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team.
...
and the Republic of Ireland-based
Football Association of Ireland had been "implacably opposed" to the staging of the game, which was why the team had to be called a "Shamrock Rovers XI". Meanwhile, Dougan, who had helped organise the match, subsequently alleged that his involvement meant that he never played for Northern Ireland again. Though it is arguable that it was at least as much a case of his Northern Ireland career having already effectively been ended, since he had been dropped from the team after a 1–0 defeat away to Cyprus the previous season and hadn't been selected for any of Northern Ireland's subsequent five matches before the Shamrock Rovers XI game, by which time he was already 35.
Style of play
Dougan was a combative
centre-forward
Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...
who relied on his speed, strength and awareness to score and create goals. Former Peterborough United teammate
Peter Deakin said that "his biggest strength was his ability in the air. If enough balls went into the area he would be on the end of 80 per cent of them". He had an excellent left-foot and was described as "streetwise" and "crafty", but was not a great passer of the ball.
Opposition defenders did not like playing against him as he was strong and very difficult to defend against.
Media career
In 1967, Dougan represented Leicester City on the television show ''Quizball''.
A fan of
psychedelic rock, he cut his own single, "A Goal for Dougie", in 1968. In 1969 published his first autobiography, ''Attack!''.
His media appearances became more frequent in the 1970s, and he was asked to make up part of
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
's four man panel to provide coverage of the
1970 FIFA World Cup, along with
Malcolm Allison,
Pat Crerand and
Bob McNab
Robert McNab (born 20 July 1943) is an English former footballer who played as a defender. McNab featured for clubs Huddersfield Town, Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers, San Antonio Thunder, Barnet, Vancouver Whitecaps and Tacoma Stars in his pl ...
.
Presenter
Brian Moore said that the panel "gave football punditry a fresh intoxicating sparkle".
Dougan went on to host a half-hour show on
BBC Radio Birmingham, which previewed the weekend's football.
He published a second autobiography, ''The Sash He Never Wore'', in 1972 (in 1997, he republished the book under the name ''The Sash He Never Wore – 25 Years On'').
In 1974, he was surprised by
Eamonn Andrews
Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ ...
for an episode of ''
This Is Your Life''.
Later in the year he published a novel, ''The Footballer''.
Author
Melvyn Bragg wrote that ''The Footballer'' was "predictable" with "thinly drawn" characters, but praised the dialogue and the "narrative flair".
Dougan reprised his role in ITV's World Cup coverage for the
1974 FIFA World Cup, with
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Engl ...
and
Jack Charlton
John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...
replacing Crerand and McNab.
In 1976, Dougan assisted historian
Percy M. Young
Percy Marshall Young (17 May 19129 May 2004) was a British musicologist, editor, organist, composer, conductor and teacher.
Young was born in Northwich, Cheshire. His father was twice mayor of Northwich. Young was educated at the local Sir John ...
in producing ''On the Spot: Football as a Profession'', a social history book that included anecdotes and insight from Dougan to complement Young's research.
He published a third autobiography in 1980, entitled ''Doog'', which revealed his disdain for Bill McGarry.
The following year he published ''How Not to Run Football'', which condemned the footballing authorities for what Dougan termed a "Victorian-Edwardian" attitude.
In 1983, he co-authored ''Matches of the Day'' with
Pat Murphy.
Football administration
PFA chairmanship
Dougan succeeded Terry Neill – his future Northern Ireland manager – as chairman of the
Professional Footballers' Association
The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. Founded in 1907, it is the world's oldest professional sport trade union, and has over 5,000 members.
The aims of ...
(PFA) in 1970.
He advocated the belief that players should control their own destiny and used his position as Chairman of the PFA to further players' rights.
He oversaw the inaugural PFA awards in 1973–74, which included the
PFA Players' Player of the Year
The Professional Footballers' Association Men's Players' Player of the Year (often called the PFA Men's Players' Player of the Year, the Players' Player of the Year, or simply the Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the player who is ...
,
PFA Young Player of the Year
The Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year (often called the PFA Young Player of the Year, or simply the Young Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the young player who is adjudged to have been the best of the s ...
,
PFA Team of the Year, and
PFA Merit Award
The Professional Footballers' Association Merit Award (often called the PFA Merit Award, or simply the Merit Award) is an award given by the Professional Footballers' Association (the PFA) for meritorious service to football. He pushed for freedom of contract for players, and in 1978 accepted a compromise deal that allowed players to switch clubs at the end of their contracts, providing that the player's new club and old club could agree on a transfer fee, with a tribunal agreeing on a fee in cases where clubs could not agree.
Chairmanship of Wolves
In August 1982, he fronted a consortium – funded by Saudi brothers Mahmud and Mohammad Bhatti of the company Allied Properties – that took Wolverhampton Wanderers out of liquidation, beating a rival bid from Doug Ellis
Sir Herbert Douglas Ellis, (3 January 1924 – 11 October 2018) was an English entrepreneur. He was the chairman of Aston Villa Football Club from 1968 to 1975, and again from 1982 until 2006. Ellis was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours L ...
. The brothers wanted anonymity, and were only revealed to the public after investigation by journalists. He sacked manager Ian Greaves
Ian Denzil Greaves (26 May 1932 – 2 January 2009) was an English football player and manager. He was born in Crompton, Lancashire. He won a League Championship medal and an FA Cup runners-up medal while playing full-back for Manchester U ...
and replaced him with former Wolves teammate Graham Hawkins
Graham Norman Hawkins (5 March 1946 – 27 September 2016) was an English football player and manager. During a sixteen year playing career in the English Football League he made a total of 502 league and cup appearances, scoring eleven goals. ...
. However the council rejected planning permission for the club to construct a supermarket, and the Bhattis were unwilling or unable to provide further funding for the club. Wolves won promotion out of the Second Division in 1982–83, but were relegated out of the First Division in last place in 1983–84, and Dougan sacked Hawkins and replaced him with Tommy Docherty
Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 April 1928 – 31 December 2020), commonly known as The Doc, was a Scottish football player and manager. Docherty played for several clubs, most notably Preston North End, and represented Scotland 25 times betw ...
. Dougan resigned in January 1985.
Later life
Dougan stood as an independent 'Former Captain NI Football Team' candidate for the East Belfast constituency in the 1997 UK general election
The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179 seat majority.
...
, but got only 541 votes and finished seventh out of the nine candidates. In April 2000, he was cleared of aggravated burglary following a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court; the incident had been alleged to have taken place at the home of Patricia Thompson, a former lover. He was also cleared of assaulting a Vietnam War veteran with a pool cue, who had been at the home with Patricia Thompson at the time of the alleged burglary incident. In another court case, again in April 2000, Dougan failed to attend a hearing where he had been charged with driving carelessly and failing to comply with a red traffic signal; he said he had been unable to attend because he had a dental appointment.
In December 2005, he was a pallbearer
A pallbearer is one of several participants who help carry the casket at a funeral. They may wear white gloves in order to prevent damaging the casket and to show respect to the deceased person.
Some traditions distinguish between the roles o ...
at the funeral of George Best
George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest p ...
. On 14 June 2006, he appeared on the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
political show ''
Question Time
A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...
'', as a representative of the
UK Independence Party
The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...
. An opinionated and driven man, his partner noted how Dougan "loved a cause", and in his later years spent much of his time organising charity events and legal representation for retired footballers. He married Jutta, a German woman with whom he had two sons: Alexander (born 1965) and Nicholas (born 1967). He separated from Jutta and spent the last three years of his life with Merlyn Humphreys. Dougan died on 24 June 2007 from a heart attack at his home in
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...
, at the age of 69.
His funeral was held on 5 July at
St Peter's Collegiate Church, and the service was transmitted to a crowd of mourners outside the church with
loudspeaker
A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or ...
s.
Speaking at his funeral,
Nick Owen
Nicholas Corbishley Owen is an English television presenter and newsreader, best known for presenting the breakfast television programme ''TV-am'' and the BBC's local news show ''Midlands Today'' since 1997. He was also the chairman of Luton ...
described Dougan as "controversial, fiery, humorous and passionate". He was inducted into the Wolverhampton Wanderers Hall of Fame in 2010, alongside former teammate
Kenny Hibbitt
Kenneth Hibbitt (born 3 January 1951) is an English former professional footballer who played in the Football League for Bradford Park Avenue, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Coventry City and Bristol Rovers, and in the North American Soccer League ...
.
Career statistics
Club
Source:
International
Honours
Distillery
*
Irish Cup
The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...
:
1955–56
Blackburn Rovers
*
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
runner-up:
1959–60
Wolverhampton Wanderers
*
Football League Cup:
1973–74
*
Texaco Cup
The Texaco Cup, officially known as the International League Board Competition, was an association football competition started in 1970, involving sides from England, Scotland, and Ireland that had not qualified for European competitions.
It wa ...
:
1970–71
*
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
runner-up:
1971–72
*
Football League Second Division
The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third t ...
second-place promotion:
1966–67
Los Angeles Wolves
*
United Soccer Association
The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...
:
1967
Events
January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 5
** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
Kansas City Spurs
*
NASL International Cup:
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
References
General
*
*
Specific
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dougan, Derek
1938 births
2007 deaths
Association footballers from Belfast
Association footballers from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland youth international footballers
Northern Ireland B international footballers
Northern Ireland international footballers
Shamrock Rovers F.C. guest players
Association football forwards
Lisburn Distillery F.C. players
Portsmouth F.C. players
Blackburn Rovers F.C. players
Aston Villa F.C. players
Peterborough United F.C. players
Leicester City F.C. players
Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players
Los Angeles Wolves players
Kansas City Spurs players
Kettering Town F.C. players
NIFL Premiership players
English Football League players
United Soccer Association players
North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players
Southern Football League players
1958 FIFA World Cup players
Football managers from Northern Ireland
Kettering Town F.C. managers
Southern Football League managers
English male singers
English rock singers
Psychedelic rock musicians
British association football commentators
Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland
Autobiographers from Northern Ireland
British trade union leaders
English football chairmen and investors
Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. directors and chairmen
UK Independence Party people
21st-century writers from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland amateur international footballers
20th-century English singers
20th-century British male singers
FA Cup Final players
20th-century English businesspeople