Lads you went to school with that should have made it

Allan Bligh from Pallister Park was a cracking player. Was at Boro but when Shepherdson came to watch him twice he got injured. Boro let him go. Played local football for years. Great player.
 
St Thomas's had a really good set of players in the 60's. Jimmy Houchen ( older brother of Coventry's FA Cup winner) played for England schoolboys. Ged O'Neil, a really good right winger. I believe he had trials for Stoke. John Duck, a very clever centre half, I don't know what happened to him, Tony Moorhead, goalkeeper ended up at Whitby Town.
 
JustTheGent said:
Never thought Jacques would make it, at least to the higher echelons of pro football. He was a similar age to a relative of mine and seen him play quite a few times. If he was struggling to get the better of a defender, he would turn to cheating and attempting to intimidate his opponents. By cheating I mean sly fouls and shirt pulling, etc. My thinking as a young kid was that if he needs to do that, he's going to struggle moving forward.

To be fair, he probably didn't struggle for a long time. His athleticism for his age was likely a couple of years above his actual age and it took a while for things to level out. I suspect by his late teens, the edge he'd had when he was younger wasn't working for him in the same way. I remember a local football figure telling a few of us that Jacques had just received a big signing on fee for his apprenticeship. I said I didn't think he was that good and it was treated like blasphemy at the time.
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I played with Danny for a number of years at a good level myself. I also played with players who enjoyed full pro careers at Premier League level. Danny was the best of the lot.
 
Subbuteo_171 said:
Andrew Banks, think he went to Ipswich but unfortunately suffered a bad knee injury?

David Keavney, you couldn’t get near him.
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Andy Banks was a good player, Neil Heany, Nick Southall, Matthew Appleby made it pro level, played with all them...Heaney told me a story once where he passed to Fowler in the last minute playing for Southampton at Anfield he ran through and scored, Souness told him at full time, you will never play for this club again...
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
David Fagan - I only went to Park End Primary with him but he was absolutely phenomenal from the age of about 6, to the point where the manager of the school football team, which was made up exclusively of Year 6 kids, was involving him at the age of 9 onwards. He played for Marton as well, I think everybody thought he was going to be a pro but he never was.

The only player I’ve ever seen as good as him at that sort of young age was Stewy Downing, who was completely mesmerising. I played against him a few times through secondary school and you couldn’t get near him. Everyone round where we grew up knew who he was when he was 13 or 14, everybody knew he was going to play for Boro. He was unbelievably good.
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In all these years on here you're the only other poster I've seen say they went to Park End. I was there long before you I imagine (the first intake) and left in '61. I was captain and Maurice Short was our goalkeeper. He played just a few games for Boro, but I've no idea if he found another club when he left us. Alan Moody might have had the occasional game with us too, but he was in the year below.
 
pierrequiroule said:
In all these years on here you're the only other poster I've seen say they went to Park End. I was there long before you I imagine (the first intake) and left in '61. I was captain and Maurice Short was our goalkeeper. He played just a few games for Boro, but I've no idea if he found another club when he left us. Alan Moody might have had the occasional game with us too, but he was in the year below.
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Morris worked at Phillips Petroleum until his retirement, absolute gent of a man.
 
Not quite the same , but played in the same league level and standard as Darren Williams ..
He really really really never stood out at all.
Was one of ten players at that level at that time
 
jonny_greenings_sock said:
Stewie Jackson was easily the best player in my year through juniors and seniors (Tedder and the Dene, Thornaby). Always thought he would make it as a midfielder. Would love to know how he’s doing now.

Shaun Howes / Howesy was in my year at the Dene - he came from a different juniors and before we started we heard he was a really good player - and he did make it a bit. Saw him playing for Thornaby a few years back and he was still really good, Downing-style flying winger.
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Yeah Howesy was a great little player. He was the cousin of one of my school mates, and although he was the school year below us (we were Pats and he was at the Dene), we played in the same 5 a side team for a few years. We won quite a lot!

Other Thornaby lads that I remember who were stand outs at secondary school (around my age) include Lee Bullock (Though he did have a good lower league pro career), Martin Speight (Spatty) and Martin O'Riordan. As good as they all were, I don't think I actually played against anyone in 11 a side and thought 'Wow'. I've played with and against some incredible 5 a side players though when they didn't have to contend with a quagmire of a pitch!
 
JustTheGent said:
Never thought Jacques would make it, at least to the higher echelons of pro football. He was a similar age to a relative of mine and seen him play quite a few times. If he was struggling to get the better of a defender, he would turn to cheating and attempting to intimidate his opponents. By cheating I mean sly fouls and shirt pulling, etc. My thinking as a young kid was that if he needs to do that, he's going to struggle moving forward.

To be fair, he probably didn't struggle for a long time. His athleticism for his age was likely a couple of years above his actual age and it took a while for things to level out. I suspect by his late teens, the edge he'd had when he was younger wasn't working for him in the same way. I remember a local football figure telling a few of us that Jacques had just received a big signing on fee for his apprenticeship. I said I didn't think he was that good and it was treated like blasphemy at the time.
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Good feet kidda.
 
Went to school with Neil Heaney.
Arsenal, Southampton, Charlton, Dundee, Darlo etc. Bumped into him and his brother a few years back. He’s lives down south now and works in Law I believe
 
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asredastheycome said:
Allan Bligh from Pallister Park was a cracking player. Was at Boro but when Shepherdson came to watch him twice he got injured. Boro let him go. Played local football for years. Great player.
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Is that the Allan Bligh who used to play over Southlands every Monday and Saturday evening in the late 90s, early 2000s? He used to wear gloves and a bin-bag under his jumper EVERY time, no matter if it was the middle of July or the end of December. He was a fairly small fella, never stopped moving and running, always made jokes and did commentaries as he was playing and had great tricks that we used to try and copy as teenagers - namely catching the ball in his jumper and shouting “play on!” as he ran away with it, and bending his knees and squatting slightly so he could control a bouncing ball with his arsè.

We loved playing with him when we were young. There was a really great bunch of older blokes there - Ronnie Gordon, Colin, Chris the goal-hanger, Mo the Jewish fella with a scraggy beard and knee-guards on both knees, who moaned and whinged more than Bruno Fernandes but was a really good player, Gordon Duck, Allan Bligh, loads more.
 
Used to play kick about games with Stuart Ripley around 1980. He obviously had amazing talent but his younger brother (Kurt?) seemed equally as good, if not better at the time. But he wasn't really interested apparently.

Also at that time I had a game of wall ball on Baldoon Sands with Gary Gill the day after he signed as an apprentice for Boro.
 
I was the year above Jamie Pollock and Sean Gregan. We played their 4th year team when we were in 5th year. We had a couple of decent players but they battered us. I think we got beaten 4-2 or something but could have been more.
 
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