WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
My piece in TTP 38 had looked at the players we had seen through the Club in 5 and a bit years of Bergara. This was a follow-up to see where some of these players, and indeed some who had been with us earlier than that, had ended up. I submitted the piece and Dave Espley kindly included a photo of Tony Coyle, who didn’t feature in the text, as he was by then plying his trade at local club Cheadle Heath Nomads, rather than in league action. Coyle was one of my favourites during the 80’s, and had two spells at the club split by a couple of years at Chesterfield. He had, of course, been the Club’s record buy when signing from Albion Rovers for £25,000 back in December 1979.
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In the last issue of TTP I looked at the number of players who had been through the club during Danny’s reign. The feature in the programmes this season which looks at those we have known and loved set me thinking about those who have moved on from EP in recent years. So with 10 minutes to spare and a copy of a paper which listed all the teams in action on the weekend of our game with Wycombe I tried to identify all those players who are now in pastures new.
We have just three representatives in the Premier League. Brett Angell was making one of his few, but always goalles,s appearances for Everton – maybe it was Jimmy Willis, (Leicester), who kept him off the scoresheet. Jason Lee has turned up at Forest but has to be satisfied with 10 minute cameo appearances being a permanent fixture as substitute. Others who we might have seen in the top flight are obviously out of favour at the moment. Andy Preece has only made a brief appearance at Palace and Phil Neal seems to have condemned PR Williams and Mike Quinn to reserve team football.
Our interest in Division 1 centres around goalkeepers with two of the worst custodians seen at EP. Carl Muggleton is getting a regular game at Stoke and will now be happy that Macari has returned to the Victoria ground. One of the Sundays recently featured an article by Frank McAvennie whose views on Muggleton’s lack of ability in his time at Celtic were more than transparent. Phil Kite is obviously filling his rightful spot by being kept on the bench at Bristol City.
In Division 2 there is strong representation at the Manor Ground, Oxford. Once again it is the keepers with both Ian Whitehead and Mark Deegan being amongst the many who fulfilled the substitute keeper role at the Park last season. Just in front of them is Les Robinson, in my opinion one of the few shining lights of the mid to late 80s, and who was scandalously undersold to Doncaster on the same day Willis left us for Darlington. As we saw recently Tony Barras is at York and was deemed to be man of the match against us despite featuring in a defence which had just conceded four goals. On the attacking side James Quinn, (of the eight minute substitute appearance last season), his forced his way into the Blackpool team. Martin James is holding down a regular spot in Rotherham despite the fact that he should still be with us. Ian Stevens, a relic of the dark Melia days, managed to notch the winner for Shrewsbury against Bristol Rovers.
Down in the basement there are quite a few who have been with us – some who were stalwarts and others whose EP career was pretty transient. We are well represented on the keeping front with Chris Marples back on his old stomping ground at Chesterfield. Simon Farnworth at Wigan will surely have a full collection of Lancashire lower League clubs and Scott Barrett, who was on loan at the end of the first play off season, is struggling to make the side at Gillingham.
Defensively Trevor Matthewson, one of the more pleasant memories of the Melia era and Chris Lucketti, who spent a season with us without making the team, are at the heart of the Bury defence and joining them at Gigg Lane are John Paskin and Mark Sertori. On the weekend in question David Frain featured in the Mansfield midfield and Gary Brabin at Doncaster, after managing to find his way out of the Conference, seems to be no friend of referees having taken an early bath on two occasions already. Darren Knowles is a regular at Scarborough and Paul A Williams now seems to be producing the kind of form for Rochdale that he showed in his first stint at the Park, and even displaying his versatility by playing in goal after their keeper was injured at Blackpool. Mike Cecere whose one substitute appearance for us was even shorter than Quinn’s has turned up at Exeter. Lastly Tony Pennock after two seasons warming the bench at Wigan has moved on to Hereford and Wayne Bullimore, who was on trial at EP last year, is the penalty taker at Scunthorpe.
In total 25 players who have had a connection with County appeared on the team sheet for their new employers. Amongst them 11 were with us on loan or short term contracts and 2 were with us a full season without appearing. By definition most of them fall in the Bergara era but one or two remind us of the dismal days which preceded it . Most of them are now at our level or below and since they were largely peripheral players in their time at the Park this is hardly surprising. You will have your own views about that merits or otherwise fond memories or derisive thoughts. One thing that is apparent is the number of keepers in the list at some point in the future I’ll return to this and look at those who have pulled on the number one Jersey.
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October 1994
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Tony Coyle in action for Cheadle Heath Nomads
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