John Fraser

Name: John Watson Fraser
Born: 15 September 1938, Belfast
Died: 13 March 2011, Waterford (Republic of Ireland)
Height: 5.08 ft
Weight: 11.00 st
Position: Outside-Left

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 1 'B' Cap (1959), Youth.
Club Honours: (with Durban City) NFL Cup Winner 1964; UTC Bowl Winner 1965.

Club Career:

Clubs	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Other
Distillery	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Glentoran	56/57-58/59	-	-	*29/16	-	-	-
Sunderland	58/59-59/60	Feb-59	£3,500	22/ 1	-	-	-
Portsmouth	60/61	Jun-60	£1,500	1/ 0	-	-	-
Margate	61/62	c/s-61	-	28/13	(Southern League)		19/7
Watford	62/63-63/64	Jul-62	-	24/ 3	4/0	1/1	-
Durban City	-	1964	-	(South Africa – National Football League)
Westview Apollon	-	1966	-	(South Africa – National Football League)
Germiston Callies	-	1967	-	(South Africa – National Football League)
Corinthians	-	1969	-	(South Africa – National Football League)
TOTALS		£5,000		104/33	4/0	1/1	19/7

* all games
 

Biography:
John Fraser came to prominence with Glentoran in the mid-1950s having begun his career with Distillery. A goalscoring outside-left, he found the net a total of 18 times in 29 games for the Glens, including 12 in 11 appearances during the 1958/59 season. It was this form that tempted Sunderland to spend £3,500 for his signature in February 1959. Within 24 hours Fraser had made an impressive Football League debut against Huddersfield Town in front of 27,000 people, and was being hailed as the "new Billy Bingham", a player who had made the same journey eight years earlier. On the 4th April he scored his first goal for the Black Cats, in a 2-0 win at Barnsley. That turned out to be his only goal for the club.

The following season proved to be a disappointing one for the young Fraser as he played just twelve games, failing to find the net in any of them. One bright spot came as he was selected for the 'B' International against France in November 1959, a match which finished 1-1 thanks to a goal from Hubert Barr.

A move to Portsmouth for the 1960/61 season brought just one League appearance and after a year Fraser moved to Southern League Margate. In just one season with Margate Fraser developed into something of a legend. 20 goals in 47 competitive games included a hattrick in a 5-1 win over Hartsdown, and a great strike in a 3-0 FA Cup First Round victory over Third Division Bournemouth. An earlier FA Cup performance (against Guildford in the Fourth Qualifying Round) saw Frazer score two and set-up three in a 6-2 win, with the local paper describing it as a "Fraser Classic" and proclaiming that he "seemingly had glue on the toe of his boots!" so adept was his dribbling and ball control. Fraser might have achieved even more with Margate had he not been ruled out for several weeks after slipping on one of his daughter's toys whilst fitting curtains in February 1962!

Watford offered Fraser the chance to return to the Football League for the 1962/63 season. In all he played 24 games for the Vicarage Road club, featuring mainly in a new role of inside-right.

In 1964 Fraser emigrated to South Africa. He picked up winners' medals with Durban City in the NFL Cup (1964) and UTC Bowl (1965), before playing out his career with spells at Westview Apollon, Germiston Callies and Corinthians. He was assistant manager back at Durban City between 1971 and 1974 (winning the National Football League and Coca Cola Shield in 1972) and after a spell out of football he took charge of Borea FC in 1977.

A welder by trade, Fraser returned to that field when footballing times were lean. He later settled in Waterford where he ran a plumbing business. After a battle with Alzheimer's disease, John Fraser passed away in 2011.

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Northern Ireland B Cap Details:
11-11-1959 France D 1-1 FR

Summary: 1/0. Won 0, Drew 1, Lost 0.

Gary Fleming

Name: Gary James Fleming
Born: 17 February 1967, Londonderry
Height: 5.09½ ft
Weight: 11.09 st
Position: Right-Back

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 31 Full Caps (1986-1994), 1 Under-23 Cap (1989), 7 Under-18 Caps.

Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Other
Tristar Boys	-	-	Youth	-	-	-	-
Derry Athletic	-	-	Youth	-	-	-	-
Nottingham Forest	84/85-88/89	Nov-84	Youth	71(3)/0	2(1)/0	5(1)/0	0(1)/0
Manchester City	89/90	Aug-89	£150k	13(1)/0	-	4(0)/0	1(0)/0
Notts County	89/90	Mar-90	Loan	3(0)/0	-	-	1(0)/0
Barnsley	89/90-95/96	Mar-90	£85k	236(3)/0	12(0)/0	14(0)/0	6(0)/0
TOTALS	-	£235k		323(7)/0	14(1)/0	23(1)/0	8(1)/0

Biography:
Gary Fleming was a teenage prodigy with Nottingham Forest in the mid-1980s. A stylish right-back, his attacking displays from defence earned glowing praise from both Billy Bingham and his boss at Forest, Brian Clough.

Having graduated through the apprentice ranks at the City Ground, Fleming’s chance came as an 18 year-old away to Arsenal in April 1985. Ironically the Arsenal side included Viv Anderson, a player whose departure had given Fleming his first-team chance. In that first season he made just one other appearance, but the following season saw him play 16 matches, and after that he was largely established in the Forest side.

Fleming's form for Forest so impressed Billy Bingham that, in October 1986, he put the 19 year-old straight into the starting eleven for a European Championship qualifier against England at Wembley. From then on, injury permitting, and despite the continued availability of the much more experienced Jimmy Nicholl, Fleming was Northern Ireland’s first-choice right-back.

Unfortunately injuries were something Fleming was to suffer badly with. An injury in closing months of the 1988/89 season, combined with the arrival of Brian Laws that same season, saw Fleming lose his place at Forest, and he was subsequently sold to Manchester City. Although the Forest fans didn’t rate Fleming in the same class as either his predecessor or successor in the right-back role, it should be noted that the team never finished lower than ninth in the First Division during his four years as a first team regular.

City had been freshly promoted to the First Division prior to Fleming's arrival and he was a regular in the side during the opening months as they struggled to acclimatise to life at the higher level. A mid-season managerial change saw Mel Machin replaced by Howard Kendall who's first signing was right-back Alan Harper, who had previously played under Kendall at Everton. Fleming was sidelined from December through to the following February, only returning to the field of play during a brief loan spell at Notts County.

In March 1990 Fleming made a cut-price move to Barnsley, by then managed by Machin. He was appreciated more by the Oakwell fans than at any other time in his career. Described as "a spendid defender", he appeared in the centre of defence and as a wing-back as well as in a more traditional full-back role during 271 appearances. For several seasons he was joined in defence by Northern Ireland colleague Gerry Taggart. In 1996 Fleming's career was ended by a knee injury.

With his playing days over Fleming trained as a physiotherapist and joined the staff at Nottingham Forest in 2000.

Northern Ireland Cap Details:
15-10-1986 England...... A L 0-3 ECQ
18-02-1987 Israel....... A D 1-1 FR
01-04-1987 England...... H L 0-2 ECQ
29-04-1987 Yugoslavia... H L 1-2 ECQ
11-11-1987 Turkey....... H W 1-0 ECQ
17-02-1988 Greece....... A L 2-3 FR
23-03-1988 Poland....... H D 1-1 FR
26-04-1989 Malta........ A W 2-0 WCQ
26-05-1989 Chile........ H L 0-1 FR
06-09-1989 Hungary...... H L 1-2 WCQ
11-10-1989 Rep. Ireland. A L 0-3 WCQ
27-03-1991 Yugoslavia... A L 1-4 ECQ
28-04-1992 Lithuania.... H D 2-2 WCQ sub
02-06-1992 Germany...... A D 1-1 FR
09-09-1992 Albania...... H W 3-0 WCQ
14-10-1992 Spain........ H D 0-0 WCQ
18-11-1992 Denmark...... H L 0-1 WCQ
17-02-1993 Albania...... A W 2-1 WCQ
28-04-1993 Spain........ A L 1-3 WCQ
25-05-1993 Lithuania.... A W 1-0 WCQ
02-06-1993 Latvia....... A W 2-1 WCQ
08-09-1993 Latvia....... H W 2-0 WCQ
13-10-1993 Denmark...... A L 0-1 WCQ
17-11-1993 Rep. Ireland. H D 1-1 WCQ
23-03-1994 Romania...... H W 2-0 FR
20-04-1994 Liechtenstein H W 4-1 ECQ
03-06-1994 Colombia..... N L 0-2 FR
11-06-1994 Mexico....... N L 0-3 FR
07-09-1994 Portugal..... H L 1-2 ECQ
12-10-1994 Austria...... A W 2-1 ECQ
16-11-1994 Rep. Ireland. H L 0-4 ECQ

Summary: 30(1)/0. Won 10, Drew 6, Lost 15.

Northern Ireland Under-23 Cap Details:
11-04-1989 Rep. Ireland. A L 0-3 FR

Summary: 1/0. Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 1.

Peter Farrell

Scorer in a famous win over England, but not for (Northern) Ireland, Peter Farrell’s dual-international feats do throw up some footballing oddities…

Name: Peter Desmond Farrell
Born: 16 August 1922, Dalkey, Dublin
Died: 16 March 1999, Dalkey, Dublin
Height: 5.08½ ft
Weight: 12.02 st
Position: Wing-Half

Representative Honours: Ireland: 7 Full Caps (1946-1949); Eire: 28 Full Caps/3 Goals (1946-1957); League of Ireland: 7 Caps.
Club Honours: (with Shamrock Rovers) FAI Cup Winner 1943/44, 1944/45, Runner-Up 1945/46; (with Everton) Football League Division Two Runner-Up 1953/54.

Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Other
Cabinyeely Schoolboys	-	-	Youth	-	-	-	-
Shamrock Rovers	39/40-45/46	Aug-39	-	/ 7	-	-	-
Everton	46/47-56/57	Aug-46	*£10,000	421/14	31/3	-	-
Tranmere Rovers	57/58-59/60	Oct-57	£2,500	114/ 1	6/0	-	-
Sligo Rovers	-	-61	-	3/ 0	-	-	-
Holyhead Town	-	-61	-	(Welsh League North)
TOTALS	-	£-		535/22	37/3	-	-

* combined fee with Tommy Eglington.

Biography:
Peter Farrell began his senior footballing career with Shamrock Rovers, signing on his seventeenth birthday in August 1939. Through the Second World War he developed into one of the finest wing-halves in the League of Ireland, playing in three consecutive FAI Cup Finals from 1944-1946, winning the fist two.

Selected as captain of Eire on his debut, for their first post-War match, Farrell played left-half in a 3-1 defeat by Portugal in Lisbon in June 1946. That August, Farrell and Tommy Eglington, a colleague for both club and country, were signed by Everton in a joint £10,000 deal. The pair were to spend a decade together at Goodison Park, playing a combined total of nearly 900 games.

By the time Farrell was first selected by the IFA the following November, he had taken his FAI cap total to three, and had already faced England. His first four Home Nations games ended in two wins and two draws, as Ireland got off to a flying start in the resumed Championship. His greatest match in a green shirt was however for the Dublin-based side. Until 21st September 1949 England had never been defeated by a ‘foreign’ nation on home soil. Playing at inside-forward on his ‘home’ ground, Goodison Park, Farrell found the net late in the game to make the score 2-0 to Eire.

As Everton were relegated in 1951 Farrell was awarded the club captaincy. He eventually led them to promotion from Division Two, as runners-up, in 1954. The previous year had seen the team run Bolton Wanderers close in the FA Cup semi-final, losing 4-3 at Maine Road. Farrell made his last appearance for the Toffees against Bolton in the final game of the 1956/57 season. The following October he moved across the Mersey in a £2,500 deal, to become player-manager of Tranmere Rovers. At Prenton Park he once again teamed up with Tommy Eglington.

After a poor run of results in the first half of the season, Farrell left Tranmere in December 1959. He was briefly player-manager at Sligo Rovers before taking charge of Holyhead Town, and with the help of some experienced ex-Everton and Tranmere colleagues, led them to the Welsh League North title. He later returned to Ireland where he managed Drogheda United (1963-64) and St Patrick’s Athletic (1967-68).

Ireland Cap Details:

27-11-1946 Scotland A D 0-0 BC
16-04-1947 Wales... H W 2-1 BC
04-10-1947 Scotland H W 2-0 BC
05-11-1947 England. A D 2-2 BC
10-03-1948 Wales... A L 0-2 BC
09-10-1948 England. H L 2-6 BC
09-03-1949 Wales... H L 0-2 BC

Summary: 7/0. Won 2, Drew 2, Lost 3.