United Heroes!

After seeing a picture of former United ‘utility’ player, Alec Donald, in last week’s Ballymena Times, it got me to thinking about all the ‘heroes’ and I do mean heroes, who have occupied the number two slot for United over the years. The first one whom I can call to mind is old timer, Eric Trevorrow. Eric played for United’s famous ’58 cup winners and I honestly don’t know how many years he served them faithfully while wearing the number two jersey. He was a good old fashioned full back, a master of the sliding tackle and must have notched up at least 400 games for the Sky Blues. He was unsurprisingly, a Scottish national, which is almost synonymous with United teams over the years. Even though I said he was old fashioned, he was in fact one of the first exponents of the ‘overlapping’ fullback. At some point during each game, or so it seemed to me, Eric would venture upfield. Generally nothing came of it, but in those days players were ‘stereotyped’, defenders defended, halfbacks and inside forwards were the midfield, while wingers played on the wings and centre-forwards ploughed a lone furrow up front. But Eric was after all an individual and in those days they were few and far between, so they tended to stand out. He was I think, the only United recipient of Castlereagh Glentoran supporters club’s footballer of the year, in fact I think he was the first winner, nowadays it tends to be won by someone from the top two or three clubs. But Eric as I said was an exceptional footballer and was appreciated by home and visiting fans alike. The next notable number two, in my humble opinion, was in fact the man I mentioned at the beginning of this article, Alec Donald. Alec had originally come to United as a winger, was then converted to being a midfielder and finally to the fullback position. Alec, of course was a Scotsman also and he was (and I don’t use the word lightly), a gentleman. He had come to Ballymena from Derry City, where he had been a fulltime pro and after getting a job at the local Michelin factory, he signed for United. He was a player who played flat out for the whole ninety minutes, but some people regarded him as being a wee bit reluctant to go for the fifty/fifty tackles. He elaborated on this one day by saying that the then United manager, Arthur Stewart, said to him that he needed to ‘get stuck in’. Alec said that his viewpoint was that he went for the tackles he thought he could win, but saw no point in risking life and limb in a vain attempt to win the ball. Alec, probably unknown to most United fans, carried a serious knee injury, which meant after a match he ‘hobbled’ for a couple of days, so one can see his point of view. However I do remember on one occasion the high flying Linfield, sweeping all before them as usual, came to town for a midweek match. Alec Donald had the ‘game of his life’ that night, when he won not only fifty/fifty tackles, but forty/ sixty and others he had no right to get even close to. I think the match ended in a 2-2 draw, but if every United player had put in half the effort of Alec that night, we would’ve won the match easily. No journal of United fullbacks would be complete without mentioning the stalwart, Mark Carlisle. Marco when he signed for us at first was not my favourite player I must admit, but like a succession of United managers I came to realise just how good the Antrim man was. Like Alec he was a real ‘gentleman’, but he was also a great fullback and a great clubman. I am personally against board intervention when a manager does something silly, but honestly think that when Kenny Shiels told our Marco that Joe Gray was getting the nod for his position, we should’ve shown Kenny the door. Joe Gray wasn’t even fit to lace Marco’s boots and we the fans knew that, but of course Kenny being Kenny, allowed the United hero to drift away to Armagh City. These are just three of United’s great number twos, they are my particular heroes and I make no apology for omitting players like Tommy Gowdy, George Beatty and a former United manager,Gary Erwin. These were good players in their own right but as I say the first three are ‘my heroes’ and I know it was a privilege to watch them play for the Sky Blues. Hopefully they’ll be a few more in the years I have left, but if not, at least I have these three to remember!