Decades have gone by since Terry Cochrane last kicked a ball in professional football. Chief football writer Paul Fraser heard the former Middlesbrough winger’s memories, including how he coached the Saudi Arabian military during the Gulf War

AS Terry Cochrane sits back on his sofa, drawing on the memories of his football career, describing the love he holds for Teesside and the friends he has made over the years in Middlesbrough, it is easy to forget what he experienced.

The five years he spent with Boro between 1978-83 – either side of spells with a variety of professional and semi-professional clubs – was arguably the most crucial of his playing days as he returned to live in the area, where he still resides now.

It was also during that spell in the North-East when he etched himself in to Northern Ireland folklore, scoring the equaliser as a substitute at Wembley against England in 1980 which led to the green jerseys going on to win the British Home Championship for the first time in 66 years.

“If I’d have been killed after that game I would have died happy,” said Cochrane, still emotional at the age of 61 when he recalls the finest moment of his career. “To pull on the Northern Ireland jersey was fantastic and then to get a goal at Wembley...

“I went on with 20 minutes to go, Jimmy Nichol whipped it in, Gerry Armstrong missed it, I kept running and I had the run on Trevor Cherry and sidefooted in to the bottom corner. Everybody jumped on top of me.

“After the game we went back to the hotel in London. Pat Jennings got an Irish group to come in and everyone got blathered. We had to go to Wales after that and won 1-0 to win the British Home Championships. You didn’t come back against England back then but we did.”

But every football fan old enough to remember those days is likely to recall that moment. Cochrane won't forget it, but that is only one of the interesting stories he has. Not all of them centre on his time spanning 16 clubs, starting with Derry City in 1969 and ending with Ferryhill in 1994.

Smack in the middle of those was a spell with Dallas Sidekicks in the United States. It was during that time when he forged links with the forces, coaching them to play Stateside ‘soccer’ and that eventually paved the way for him to experience something completely different.

“I had the chance to go to Saudi Arabia to coach the military during the Gulf War in 1991,” said Cochrane. “I stayed in Jeddah, so Saddam Hussein couldn’t hit us with scuds from there! Or that’s what we were told anyway.

“They didn’t speak English, I had an Egyptian interpreter. We had boys off the desert coming in. It took them six months to learn how to use a knife and fork. They came to training in black, hobnailed boots, trying to kick seven bells out of each other. Some of the tackles were incredible.

“You got stopped everywhere you went because of the threat of terrorists. I knew the guys on the post because of the football. We lived in a big compound. On a weekend, the Thursday and Friday, I remember going out to the desert one Friday night and we went to the edge of the Red Sea.

“The guys had all the spear guns, fishing, they got the squid. I remember having a sleeping bag, with a fire on the edge of the Red Sea, sleeping through the night. I remember thinking ‘people back home would never believe where I was’. It was fantastic really. The Americans, who I was working for, lost the contract at the end of the year so I went back home.”

Despite the contract ending, Cochrane could have stayed in the Middle East because he had been invited to remain in Jeddah after being well received for his coaching and his approach to the new way of life. He would only have returned home twice a year, though, so decided against it.

In hindsight he feels he could have negotiated a better agreement and had more trips home to see his family, and that shaped his decision, ultimately.

Strangely, as a footballer in Northern Ireland, he actually felt more threatened during the troubles, even if it was never an issue for him growing up in the tiny village of Killyleagh, County Down. He might never have had a shot taken at him during the Gulf War, but he did during training with Linfield.

“We would train at Windsor Park and one night we heard what we thought was rain on the top of the stand,” said Cochrane. “We turned round and wondered what it was. They were shooting at us from Andersons Town. They were shooting at us.

“We got back in to the dressing room and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It was one of those moments. We were just training under the lights and that happened, it was frightening. It’s not what you expect when you’re training.

“It was strange really. I was from a Republic area, well in to the troubles at that time. It was integrated. We married in to each other, we fished together. That was different to the main town where there are Catholics here, Protestants there.

“Killyleagh is integrated. I left Linfield because I married a catholic and then I went to Coleraine. All the incidents that happened in ‘69 and ‘70 in Northern Ireland made the feelings strong. It was horrific. People were blowing things up because of religion. I never took sides because I felt both were as bad as each other.”

He got his break from the troubles by moving to Burnley, where he made 67 league appearances before Boro paid a then club record fee of £233,000 for the tricky winger in October 1978, the days long before summer transfer windows. He has travelled since, but today he remains an adopted Teessider.

“Burnley bought me for a record fee, but I was the record signing here too,” chatting in his Boro home after launching his autobiography, In off the Far Post.

“I have dedicated my book to four lads from Middlesbrough, which shows what this area means to me. Keith Phillips, Mick O’Neill, Kevin Healy and Tony Heringshaw all died in one year from cancer, all the same age. They were my friends. That was a big thing for me.

“I decided to talk in my book about my friends I met during my career, because most footballers I have played with are just acquaintances, I just worked with them. There are plenty I’ve never seen again after transfers. I made more friends out of the fans. We were a group of friends and they would give me stick in the pub if I played badly.”

He spent time in Hong Kong, where he claims to have been involved in a game that was fixed, and labelled ‘Trevor Brooking the most boring person in the world’ adding ‘if you were on a desert island, you would build a boat to get away from him’.

But somebody he had the pleasure of playing with possessed, he says, far more charisma: George Best. Cochrane said: “I was only a young squad member. He was always in the thick of things.

“He bought me a drink one day in County Antrim. A couple of weeks later against Fulham he played against us. George would speak to you when he recognised you. It was just other people who seemed to pick on him to try to wind him up.

“We were having lunch one afternoon and there was a wedding on. A guy came in from the wedding asking for an autograph. George signed it and the fella said ‘what’s up, can you not ******* write?’ Everyone was stunned. George got up and a couple of lads held him back.

“He was just targeted. He had picked on George; trying to be clever. George had a good autograph. He will have got very wary of people when he was in that limelight. You get a lot of jealous people. It was sad.

“As a footballer you could just give him the ball and he would do anything with it, he was very good for everyone in the squad. He was very humble. He never messed around. You never really saw him after the games.”

More of Terry Cochrane’s memories can be read in full in his book, In off the Far Post, priced £9.99 and is available at terrycochrane.co.uk. He has signing sessions lined up around Teesside this month.