WHETHER Seamus O'Connell was scoring goals with flying, diving headers from the edge of the box, or sending pinpoint passes 40 or 50 yards across the pitch, he made football look very, very easy. He was the greatest amateur footballer that I ever saw play football on a cold, draughty Saturday afternoon in south west Durham, and part of his greatness stems from the fact that, above all things, he was a gent. There was no nastiness in his play.

Tommy Orrick, once an outside right alongside O'Connell at Bishop Auckland, said: "Before we went out, Seamus would come across to me in the dressing room and say: 'As soon as I get the ball, Tommy, you start your run up the wing.' I did as exactly as Seamus said and every time he would send me an inch perfect pass, the ball would be there for me to run onto."

John Heatherington, who was normally a defender, recalled a game at Evenwood when Crook were short of a centre forward. Seamus said to him: "You go centre forward John, because you will score." "How do you know that?" replied John. "I'll put one on a plate for you." said Seamus.

John said: "I played at number 9 and scored a hat-trick."

Seamus O'Connell knocking in a nail just as he used to knock in the goalsThere was a fun side to Seamus's game. John Walton, who was the Crook Town keeper in a game against Bishop at Crook, recalled: "Bishop won a corner and Seamus, who was standing in our box only a few yards away from me, shouted: 'Top left hand corner son.'

"We cleared the ball so I shouted: 'What about the top left hand corner, Seamus?

"Ten minutes later, Bishop won another corner and this time Seamus planted the ball with his head into the top left hand corner of my net. He ran over, lifted me off the ground and shouted: 'Top left hand corner, son.'"

Then there were the girls. With his film star looks, Seamus was never short of female company, and over the years at the Durham Amateur Football Trust we have have met numerous ladies who all said that they had dated Seamus.

One lady, very posh and articulate, used to ring us regularly asking about the whereabouts of Seamus. She would say: "We often walked hands in hand along the beach." We finally gave in and gave her Seamus's number in Spain. "That number is no good," she said. "When I ring that number the lady at the other end tells me to '.... off!'"

Sometimes his love life and his football got in the way of each other. Crook winger Arnold Coates once said: "One Saturday, it was only 20 minutes to kick-off time when Seamus rolled into the dressing room looking as if he had been out all night. Fifteen minutes into the second half, he came over to me and said: 'Arnold you go inside right, let me have a rest on the wing.'"

Headline in The Northern Echo announcing that Seamus O'Connell, who had played for five seasons at Bishop Auckland, had decided to join neighbours and bitter rivals Crook Town. O'Connell has the ball on the right of the pictureO'Connell had football nous. I recall a tight game at the Millfield in Crook which ended 1-1. The centre half who was marking O'Connell was a top class, experienced Northern League number 5. I remember he received the ball halfway in his own half but facing his own goal. O'Connell came up behind him and darted from side to side behind his back forcing him back towards his own goal. The centre half never got turned round and was put under so much pressure by O'Connell he finally gave away a corner kick.

And his time at Crook in the late 1950s was as he was nearing the end of his career. He'd come over the Pennines from his native Carlisle to make his debut for Middlesbrough on Boxing Day 1953, and scored in their 3-2 win over Newcastle United. In August 1954, he moved to Chelsea and made his stunning debut for them on October 16, 1954, at Stamford Bridge against Manchester United, only six months after he had played for Bishop Auckland against Crook Town in the 1954 FA Amateur Cup final.

Chelsea versus Manchester United teamsheet on the day O'Connell made his debut Manchester United's defence that day was Ray Wood, Bill Foulkes and Roger Byrne and, only a fortnight earlier, they had been the defence for the full England side against Ireland. Allenby Chilton at number 5 was also an England international and Duncan Edwards at number 6 was an England B international who would make his full debut the following year.

Against top quality players like that O'Connell, on his debut, hit a hat-trick for Chelsea.

They still lost the game 6-5, but I do not know of any other Northern League player who has scored a hat-trick on his debut for a First Division side while still playing in the Northern League.

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