The Owen da Gama fan club and Derry City's explosion onto the League of Ireland scene

The long and difficult battle for football justice for our city after years in the football wilderness was – at long last – at an end but the madness was just beginning.

Journalists from all over Europe were here on a daily basis to see what this phenomenon was all about.

Not only were we unique in playing ‘abroad’ but we were also the only club playing under the auspices of FIFA who had NO POLICE at our games. Because of the political situation pertaining here at the time all parties – including, and especially, the RUC – agreed that any police presence would probably have created more problems than it solved; so we were trusted to ‘self police’.

And, thankfully, that trust was not misplaced as, over the interim years, our fans have been regarded as the best behaved and most sporting in the league.

At the time Brian Clough brought over his Nottingham Forest team and the following weekend was raving about us on the ‘Saint and Greavesie Show’ on ITV. By this stage Jimbo Crossan had been replaced by Noel King in the manager’s chair and even this appointment wasn’t exactly conventional.

We were in a Management Committee meeting in our Embassy Building headquarters when suddenly, the door opened and the Social Club barman popped his head in. ‘Could Seamus Hegarty (our club secretary) take an urgent call? So Seamus went out and, about 10 minutes later, returned to announce; ‘that was someone called Noel King calling from France and he’s interested in the manager’s position – if it’s still open!’

As I was the only member of the board who had any knowledge of the League of Ireland, all heads turned to me. There was also the added fact that, during our ‘wandering’ years, I had played with Dundalk and was well aware of the Macker/Kinger coaching partnership which had later brought so much success to Shamrock Rovers. So my assessment was positive and the appointment which was to have such a phenomenal affect on the club and, indeed, League of Ireland football in general was made.

Noel, through his extensive contacts in the European game set about strengthening our First Division squad in preparation for the obvious target of eventual membership of the Premier League. Stuart Gauld and Jack Keay, two excellent imports from Scotland, who, like many Scots before them, are still living here with their families were two pillars of our defence for many years and, indeed, both were members of the iconic ‘Treble’ team.

Denis Tueart, who had been such a major factor in launching the club after being recruited by Eamonn, his former Sunderland colleague, got a serious hamstring injury and bowed out for good. But we were now on the cusp of the ‘Harlem Globetrotters’ era.

The first arrivals were exotic – to say the least. When Owen da Gama and Nelson da Silva arrived in the city they were received like royalty. Owen, a total extrovert, took the place by storm while Nelson had a quieter but still mesmeric presence about him.

I was appointed Owens’s minder and went to meet him at Aldergrove one beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon. He was full of curiosity about Derry and, with his roots in South Africa (he was designated under the loathsome Aparteid system as ‘Cape Coloured’), was interested in our own situation.

With those rolling ‘r’s’ which I can still hear to this day, he inquired: ‘Eddie, is ther-r-re much of a r-r-acial problem in Derry?’ ‘Owen, I’m glad to tell you we can give you any kind of problem you mention – EXCEPT a racial problem!’ He hit the city like a tornado.

As his (supposed) mentor I used to get calls sometimes at 3 am, ‘Eddie, we’ve run out of ice!’ and what a hit he was with the girls! I’m sure he doubled the attendances at the Point Inn on a Sunday night. To boot, he had a Number One hit in Northern Ireland with a record call ‘Zoom’ which was originally a UK Number Two for Fat Larry’s Band. If memory serves he was managed by my very good friend, Johnny Murray of City of Derry Jazz Festival fame.

And, naturally, Owen had his very own fan club which included a calendar, personally signed A3 poster, membership certificate and monthly newsletter which kept us up to date with Super O’s movements. No Facebook in those days. The craic really was ‘90’.

Nelson and his wife, Rosie, lived a quieter life though his build and film star good looks got him plenty of engagements on the local catwalks. But our ‘star’ imports didn’t end there. Jose Mokendi arrived in from I’m not sure where and surely created some sort of record by becoming a club legend without – as far as I can remember – ever getting a first team start.

‘Jose, Jose, give us a wave’ has entered ‘Pure Derry’ history and his son has played for both Harps and ‘Stute. Then there was Harris Choue, a player that some Derry fans may not remember.

This was because he played just ONE game – away to Newcastlewest. But he really looked the part and we were hoping for great things from him but I think that there was some problem with his papers and, unfortunately, he had to leave. Not before, however, he had a memorable encounter with Tony Doc.

As the team arrived back from Limerick pretty well everything in the city had closed for the night so Doc, supremely generous man that he is, handed Harris a tenner with the well known Derry instruction: ‘Go and buy yourself some sweeties!’

The player who naturally hadn’t yet familiarised himself with the local dialect was mystified and sought out some of the directors for clarification. ‘Tony has asked me to go and buy something I don’t understand.’

Fortunately the situation was explained to him – and all was well. By this time Tony had retired from active service and joined Kinger on the coaching staff as we won our first trophy – The LOI Shield – in a final against Longford Town played in neutral Sligo.

My lasting memory is of coming home on the coach and, as the music from a Ghetto Blaster almost deafened us, Stuart and Owen were jumping up and down on the seats to the tune of Jim Kerr and Simple Minds ‘Don’t you forget about me’ then on its FOURTH entry into the charts.

All of the above began its own musical offerings. Christmas brought us ‘Noel, Noel, born is the King of Brandywell’ and Joe Quigley’s magnificent band ‘Diamonds’ gave us their alternative version of Starship’s ‘We built this city on rock and roll’ with their ‘We built this City on Doc and Noel’. All culminating in Felix (not yet a Derry player) and the team’s ‘Brandywell Pride’.

They were truly amazing days that none of us who were part of them will ever forget. Looking back, it’s still hard to believe. The Brandywell packed every week; about A THOUSAND travelling to ALL away matches and keeping other clubs alive in the process; and that truly amazing cup-tie in Cork when we brought NINETEEN THOUSAND fans down to Flower Lodge some of them on a special train which travelled all the way down from Derry to be met by the Mayor of the city and members of his council.

We will truly never see the like again and the credit must go to Kinger who was the right man in the right spot at the right time. He was the man who lit the fuse. Sadly it all ended badly when he and Macker couldn’t see eye-to-eye and I have no doubt that, had they been able to sort out their difference, we’d have had 10 YEARS of total dominance. But those first couple of years were unforgettable and added a brilliant chapter to our club’s history.

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