Over the years, some very famous footballers have played for a spell in the League of Ireland with clubs enticing major stars of international football to spend brief periods of their later careers entertaining League of Ireland supporters.
In this series, Colm Murphy gives a rundown of some of the top “superstars” who “graced” the League of Ireland over the years.
Peter Lorimer
Peter Lorimer played 449 times and scored 151 goals for Leeds United between 1963 and 1979 before departing for spells at York City, Toronto Blizzards and Vancouver Whitecaps.
He also made 21 appearances for Scotland between 1969-1976. In January 1983, he arrived for a short spell at UCD and made his debut on January 16th in a 2-0 defeat at Waterford United. The media reports were not flattering:
“Those who expected the former Leeds star to produce the cannonball shots which were his speciality were sadly disappointed. He looked overweight and made little contribution”.
His home debut came against Dundalk seven days later and he was powerless to prevent Jim McLaughlin’s men from running out 3-0 winners with goals from Martin Lawlor, Mick Fairclough and Sean Byrne. Lorimer played one more game before returning for a second spell at Elland Road where he played until 1986.
The story goes that he returned all of his wages to UCD because he didn’t think he had done enough to earn it!
Terry Venables
The craziness of early 1976 continued when St. Pat’s signed 33-year-old Terry Venables in February.
Venables had already become a part of the Crystal Palace coaching staff but in between his final league appearance in January 1976 and his appointment as first team manager at Selhurst Park in June 1976, Venables decided to make a few quick bucks by lining up alongside Barry Bridges at St. Pat’s.
Venables was joined at St. Pat’s by Alan Harris, another member of the Palace coaching staff, who was the brother of the famous Ron “Chopper” Harris that Venables played with at Chelsea.
Both Venables and Harris spent their week coaching the then Third Division side (managed by Malcolm Allison) and made the trip to Ireland on Sundays to take their place on the St. Pat’s team.
Venables made his debut on 22nd February in a 1-1 draw away to Sligo Rovers. St. Pat’s took the lead through Leo “Pop” Flanagan before McGuckian levelled. Venables produced a man of the match performance.
He again was the best player on display on his next appearance in the Cup replay with Drogheda on March 7th.
“The match’s outstanding performer finished up on the losing side,” stated the Irish Times. Venables “ruled the midfield with inexorable authority and impressed with cool and studied play by sending an uninterrupted stream of inch-accurate passes to mostly unappreciative forwards and was generally in the thick of the battle. Where he found the stamina for all the work he did is a mystery”.
However, his next game for St. Pat’s was a nightmare. Limerick, bottom of the table, won 5-0 at Richmond Park. Venables’ brief flirtation with Irish football ended shortly afterwards.
Barry Bridges
Barry Bridges was a shock signing for St. Patrick’s Athletic in February 1976. Bridges had made his name for Chelsea where he scored 80 goals in 176 appearances between 1958 and 1976.
He made four appearances for England in 1965 and scored against Yugoslavia. Having been listed on the preliminary squad list for the 1966 World Cup he lost out to Geoff Hurst when Alf Ramsey was deciding who would challenge Jimmy Greaves and Roger Hunt in his attack force.
He then continued to score plenty of goals at Birmingham City, QPR, Millwall and Brighton before moving to South Africa.
He made his St. Pat’s debut in a 1-0 win over Shamrock Rovers at Milltown on February 1st 1976 and impressed the large crowd.
He scored his first goal for St. Pat’s in a 2-1 defeat at home to Rodney Marsh’s Cork Celtic on February 8th. Bridges was an instant success with the Pat’s fans and when George Richardson (father of Damien) resigned as manager of St. Pat’s following their FAI Cup exit to Drogheda, Bridges became player-manager.
He made a goalscoring start to his spell as manager in a 2-1 win over Home Farm and was appointed full-time manager in the summer.
