Charlie Hurley
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CHARLIE HURLEY CHARLIE HURLEY “The Greatest Centre Half the World has Ever Seen“ Mark Metcalf This book is dedicated to Noble Metcalf, who died in June 2004, and his grandson Charlie Metcalf, born January 2008. CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Foreword – Niall Quinn xi Prologue xiii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Growing up in Essex 7 Chapter 2 Signing for Millwall 14 Chapter 3 A career-threatening injury 28 Chapter 4 Seven and six, was he worth it? 45 Chapters “You’ll be seeing them” 65 Chapter 6 Tying the knot and having his best season 76 Chapter 7 Fatherhood but no promotion 91 Chapter 8 The arrival of Brian Clough 107 Chapter 9 Pipped at the post 117 Chapter 10 Back where they belong 133 Chapter 11 First Division football 158 Chapter 12 Injury and heartache 174 Chapter 13 Bust-up with Baxter 187 Chapter 14 McColl and Baxter leave 196 Chapter 15 Thanks, Charlie, it’s time to go 208 Chapter 16 Burnden Park and the end of a great career 217 Chapter 17 Management at Reading 226 Chapter 18 Aftermath and missing football 239 Bibliography 246 Index 249 Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without the help of many people. Special thanks must go to Brian Leng, Dave Hillam, Andy Forsyth, Gordon Sharrock, Chris Bethell, the staff at Colindale Library, London and at Sunderland Social Studies Unit, Plunkett Carter of the Cork Evening Echo, Gavin Reardon, Jim Fox, Norman Howe, of the Sunderland ex-players association, John Harvey, Ross McKee, Gordon Taylor – chief executive of the PFA, Roger Pugh, Paul Days, Paddy Crerand, Tom O’Shea, and former players from Sun- derland and Millwall, among them contemporaries of Charlie such as George Mulhall, Stan Anderson, Am- brose Fogarty, Len Ashurst, Malcolm Finlayson, Stan Anslow and John Shepherd. Finally a special thanks to my wife, Ruth Jones, who never tired of telling me to “get on with it” when I looked like running out of energy. Prologue Was Charlie Hurley, a player who never won a League or Cup winner’s medal, who never played in the World Cup and who played mostly in the second and third tiers of English football ,“the greatest centre half the world has ever seen”? Well, he was certainly the best centre half playing in English football between 1960 and 1965 with numerous man of the match performances for Sunderland, including games against ‘double’ winners Spurs in 1961, Leeds in 1963, First Division champions Everton in 1964 and FA Cup winners West Ham in 1965 which earned him the title ‘King Charlie’ among the Roker Park hordes. Hurley is also a very strong contender for the best player to have played for Millwall even though he left when he was only twenty-one. For the Republic of Ireland, Hurley had a series of tremendous performances. These included matches against England in 1957, Poland a year later, West Germany in 1960 and Czechoslovakia in 1967. He played international football for more than twelve years in teams often missing key players from top clubs. These are the only conclusions I can draw from my attempts to provide a fair examination of the playing career of the man voted in 1979 the best player in Sunderland’s first one hundred years. They were not, in fact, what I expected when I first set out more than two years ago without Charlie Hurley’s knowledge to write this book. We had never met and I believed that the views of Sunderland supporters from the ’60s, including those of my late father, were tinged with romanticism. However, as I delved into thousands of match reports from local, regional, national and international newspapers, and then spoke to Hurley’s former teammates and opponents, it became clear that he was an exceptional footballer whom I wish I had been able to see at his prime rather than at the very end of his career. Hurley was not only brilliant in the air in defence or when Sunderland forced corners; he was also a great tackler and defender. A celebrated leader of players, a natural captain and a determined opponent, Hurley was the ultimate professional who always gave one hundred per cent when he turned out on the field. And he certainly knew where the goal was, scoring twenty-six times for Sunderland and also grabbing seven for Millwall, Bolton Wanderers and the Republic of Ireland as well as creating numerous opportunities for others to cash in. This alone would have endeared him to football fans but when he combined all this with an extraordinary ability to control the ball, even in dangerous areas, and at times direct the play from centre half he was marked out as an immense talent. Hurley’s weakness was that he was not the quickest. This was partly the result of his career-threatening injury in 1955 from which he never really recovered and towards the end of his top-flight career some of the best players exposed him for pace, particularly Geoff Hurst in 1968 when he rattled home six at Upton Park as Sunderland slumped 8-0. But it was typical and to his immense credit that Hurley had the last laugh, playing a superb game a few weeks later when Sunderland gained a measure of revenge with a 2-1 victory over the Hammers. So does all this make him “the greatest centre half the world has ever seen”, a chant which can still be heard chanted whenever Sunderland are playing? Possibly not, but if there have been better ones they are very few and far between, that’s for sure. Charlie Hurley, of course, would never suggest he was the greatest centre half the world has ever seen. Indeed when he agreed for this to be an authorised biography the only complaint he had was about the title, feeling that it might lead to some of his friends and ex-teammates giving him stick. We should of course leave the last word to the big, genial Irishman. “I loved being a professional footballer. It has given me, my wife and family a great life. All I have ever wanted is to be recognised as a good footballer on the pitch and a decent bloke off it. I continue to enjoy and be thrilled when people praise me but I am also a ‘fan of the fans’ and always will be,” says Charlie Hurley. Mark Metcalf, 2008 Introduction Who’s the greatest centre half the world has ever seen, Who’s the greatest centre half the world has ever seen, Who’s the greatest centre half the world has ever seen? This was the cry from 40,000 fans as the tall, dark-haired elderly man emerged from the tunnel at half-time. They provided the answer themselves. Charlie Hurley is his name, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie Hurley This despite the fact the vast majority could not possibly have seen the man play for their beloved club, his last game for Sunderland having taken place in April 1969. “Who’s he, Granddad?” asked the small boy. “He’s our best player ever,” was the reply. No arguments against could be heard. This book is the first ever on Charlie Hurley, someone who can still bring grown men to tears, so fondly do they think of the man they refer to simply as ‘the King’. Of players of a similar vintage only Sir Bobby Charlton at Manchester United comes close to winning as much admiration from his supporters as Charlie Hurley. When Sunderland won promotion to the Premier League with a 5-0 win at Luton in May 2007 the final chant of that match and the season was for the Irish- man. This was only weeks after Charlie Hurley had been selected by Millwall fans as their “best ever player”. This award was in honour of his outstanding performances during the 1950s before he went north. Hurley was best known as a man-mountain of a centre half but he could also play a bit, being able to pass the ball with accuracy out of defence and, when the occasion demanded it, make foraging runs from the back. And if anyone thinks that Cristiano Ronaldo’s trick where he flicks the ball across goal by moving his kicking foot behind the standing/supporting foot is new then they should think again – Hurley was using just such a technique to clear his lines and bring his full-backs into play as long ago as 1958! Not for nothing was Hurley chosen to kick-off Niall Quinn’s testimonial match between Sunderland and the Republic of Ireland in 2002. Hurley is one of the greatest players ever to play for the Republic, winning forty caps for his country, twenty-one as captain. He was certainly his country’s best player throughout the 1960s. Ironically, after his birth in Cork on October 4th 1936, he lived there for less than a year, his family seeking to escape poverty by moving to Rainham in Essex in 1937. After surviving the London ‘Blitz’ that killed one of his best friends, Hurley’s talent as a footballer was soon recognised but his commitment to the welfare of his parents and six brothers and sisters meant he refused a professional contract at West Ham because the money on offer was a lot less then he was earning as an apprentice toolmaker at the Ford Motor Company. Salvation came in the form of Millwall who offered the sixteen-year-old a route into the game, which he gratefully accepted. He repaid ‘the Lions’ by making more than one hundred appearances for them over the following five years, endearing himself to one of the most partisan crowds in England.