IT was late summer in 1963 and a group of four men were sitting in a car outside the entrance to Bishop Auckland Football Club.

“There he is,” one of the men said. Quickly, the four men got out the car and surrounded a tall man dressed in a smart suit, shirt and tie. They directed him back to their car, bundling him into the back seat.

Two members of the group joined him in the back seat, one on either side. Words were spoken, some money was passed before the eyes of the suited man before a form was unfolded, laid on a large notebook which the man in the suit signed.

The back door was opened, the man in the suit was allowed to leave and Crook Town had signed England amateur international Seamus O’Connell.

That was how a former committee man of Crook Town described amateur international Seamus O’Connell’s transfer from Bishop Auckland at the start of the 1963-64 season.

O’Connell made his debut for Crook on Saturday, October 12, at Ferryhill in a Northern League fixture which Crook lost 3-0.

O’Connell had looked a little lethargic, he had lost a half a yard of pace and gained a couple of inches of flesh around the waist. He wasn’t the slim, athletic figure who had helped Crook to win the FA Amateur Cup in 1959 and reach the semifinal in 1960. What he did have, however, was a keen footballing brain sharpened up by a season with Chelsea, in 1954- 55, and several seasons playing with top-class amateurs at Bishop Auckland.

The first big game of the season was the visit of Football League Chesterfield in the first round of the FA Cup, on Saturday, November 19 – a game that should have been tailor-made for the experienced O’Connell. The Crook committee thought otherwise and left him out preferring to play young John Cocking at centre forward.

The football world was stunned, The Daily Mirror had a headline, “Is this the end for O’Connell?”. Cocking was a decent player and in the previous season had scored two goals at Hull City in the opening round of the FA Cup, a game Crook lost 5-4, but he wasn’t O'Connell. Crook lost 2- 1 to Chesterfield, John Weir scoring their goal, a beauty from 25 yards O’Connell returned at inside right the following Saturday for a home game with Billingham Synthonia, Sowerby wore the number nine shirt.

Crook won 2-1. Another centre forward was signed, this time Bobby Veart, and he scored on his debut at Spennymoor on December 29 where Crook won 2-1. O’Connell must have wondered: “Why all the centre forwards?”

Next up was an FA Amateur Cup first round tie with Stanley United, at home. O’Connell returned at centre forward, Veart played at inside left and the match ended 1-1. The replay was the following Saturday.

It was a bitterly cold day, the ground was rock hard and covered with frost. Crook coach George Wardle brought baseball boots with rubber soles for his players. It worked – Crook dominated and won 5- 1. O’Connell, who led the line hit a hat-trick, while Veart was left out.

O'Connell led the line in the replay with Hayes in the second round of the Amateur Cup and also at West Auckland in the third round, but that was his last game because he was left out for the replay with West the following Saturday.

Crook signed another centre forward, Derek Dowson, from Tow Law, and he played in the quarter- final and semi-final wins over Walthamstow Avenue and Barnet, Crook going on to lift the Amateur Cup beating Enfield 2-1 at Wembley with Matt Lumsdon wearing O’Connell’s number nine shirt It was rather a sad end for O’Connell, one of the greatest amateurs to play in the Northern League. Players at the time talk of a bonus not being paid to him, others say he either asked for more money or fell out with coach George Wardle.

The Northern Echo:
A newspaper cutting of one of Seamus O’Connell man of the match performances in the cup clash with Stanley United

FORMER team-mates talk of a friendly man who offered advice. John Tobin recalled the day he missed a chance to score. “Seamus caught me after the game and said ‘John, when the ball is at knee height think about a diving header’.”

John Weir remembered his dressy suits and the cotton wool that he would stuff down his football socks to protect his legs.

Crook goalkeeper Ray Snowball said: “Seamus had by far the hardest shot in either foot of any player that I played against, amateur or professional.”

O’Connell returned to Bishop Auckland and was still playing in the mid-1960s before he retired to Spain to run a bar.

He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and had a stroke late in life. He died earlier this year.

  • O’Connell played 11 times for the Chelsea first team in 1954-55, the season they won the First Division championship.

He scored a hat-trick on his debut against Manchester United on Saturday October 16, 1954.