Danny Hegan

A "pop-star" of the English game in the late-60s and early-70s, Danny Hegan's creative talents were largely tempered by his wayward lifestyle...

Name: Daniel Hegan
Born: 14 June 1943, Coatbridge (Scotland)
Died: August 2015, Birmingham (England)
Height: 5.08 ft
Weight: 10.06 st
Position: Midfielder

Representative Honours: 7 Full Caps (1969-1973).
Club Honours: (with Ipswich) Football League Division Two Champion 1967/68; (with Wolves) UEFA Cup Runner-Up 1971/72.

Club Career:

Clubs	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Europe	Other
Bellshill Athletic	-	-	-	(Scottish Junior Football)
Albion Rovers	59/60-61/62	-	-	25(0)/ 4	-	-	-	-
Sunderland	61/62-62/63	Sep-61	£5,000	0(0)/ 0	-	-	-	-
Ipswich Town	63/64-68/69	Jul-63	£10,000	207(0)/34	11(0)/3	12(0)/1	-	10(0)/2
West Bromwich Albion	69/70	May-69	£88,000	13(1)/ 2	-	4(0)/0	-	-
Wolverhampton Wanderers	70/71-73/74	May-70	£27,500	49(4)/ 6	3(0)/0	3(0)/1	8(1)/1	2(0)/0
Sunderland	73/74	Nov-73	£5,000	3(3)/ 0	0(2)/0	-	-	-
Highlands Park	1974	-	Free	(South African NFL)
Partick Thistle	74/75	-	Trial	0(0)/ 0	-	-	-	-
Highlands Park	1975	-	-	(South African NFL)
Coleshill Town	75/76-77/78	-	-	(Midland Combination)
TOTALS		£135,500		297(8)/46	14(2)/3	19(0)/2	8(1)/1	12(0)/2

Biography:
A product of Scottish Junior Football, Danny Hegan began his senior career with hometown Scottish League club, Albion Rovers, signing on his sixteenth birthday. After a little over a season at inside-forward in the Scottish Second Division, he transferred to Sunderland in a £5,000 deal in September 1961. Unable to break into the starting eleven at Roker Park, Hegan moved on to Ipswich in July 1963 for £10,000.

Hegan’s Ipswich career got off to an inauspicious start as his debut finished with a 6-0 defeat by Bolton on the way to relegation. He soon found his feet though, developing into one of the most talented creative players in the Football League, eventually helping them to the Second Division title in 1968. Still rated among Ipswich’s all-time greats, Hegan’s social life began to catch up with him and his form dipped back in the top-flight. After a number of months on the transfer list, Hegan moved to West Brom in a player plus cash deal worth £88,000 in May 1969.

It was while at the Hawthorns that Hegan’s father’s Irish birth was realised, and he was awarded his first cap in the 2-0 defeat to the USSR that cost Northern Ireland a place at the Mexico 1970 World Cup – the match is probably most famous for the non-appearance of George Best prior to the trip to Moscow as he was held back by Manchester United for a League Cup tie. An agreement between the Home Nations limited players eligible through the "father rule" to non-British Championship games only, and it was two years before Hegan won his second cap, in another defeat by the USSR in Moscow.

Aside from the party-going lifestyle, the comparisons between Hegan and Best were obvious; from the mop of hair on his head to the swagger in his play. Hegan was a flair player who loved to play with the ball at his feet. This was an era were such players were actively targeted by opposition defenders, and Hegan suffered his fair share of hard challenges, and like Best he would often react as the red mist descended.

Having failed to make a significant mark at West Brom, where he played more times for the reserves in the Central League than for the first-team in the Football League, Hegan made a cut-price £27,500 move to Wolves in May 1970. Initially slow to settle at Molyneaux, it was only in his second season that Hegan made an impact on the first eleven, scoring with a brilliant chip in the UEFA Cup quarter-final win over Juventus as Wolves marched to the Final, losing out 3-2 on aggregate to Spurs. In May 1972 Terry Neill took advantage of a change in the Home Nations rules, and selected Hegan for all three of the Home Nations ties, including a famous 1-0 win over England at Wembley.

In November 1973 Hegan was sacked by Wolves after disappearing on "another" drinking binge, and he returned to Sunderland for £5,000. Back at Roker Park he played just six times before being released. It proved a sad end to the League career of one of the most gifted midfielders of his generation. Hegan then spent two summers in South Africa with Johannesburg based Highland Park, and later played non-League football with Coleshill before retiring in May 1978. Later Hegan worked as a soccer coach at Butlin’s Holiday Camps, before settling in Birmingham where he worked as a taxi driver, labourer and industrial cleaner.

In 1982 Hegan went public with allegations that Leeds United's Billy Bremner attempted to bribe a Wolves team-mate to fix a match in the 1971/72 title run-in. Bremner successfully sued for £100,000 in libel damages. Only in more recent years, since Bremner’s death, have others seemingly corroborated Hegan’s story.

Hegan passed away in at the age of 72 in August 2015 after a battle with cancer.

Pride of Anglia
Wolves Heroes
Wolves Heroes

Northern Ireland Cap Details:
22-10-1969 USSR.... A L 0-2 WCQ
22-09-1971 USSR.... A L 0-1 ECQ
20-05-1972 Scotland H L 0-2 BC
23-05-1972 England. A W 1-0 BC
27-05-1972 Wales... A D 0-0 BC
18-10-1972 Bulgaria A L 0-3 WCQ
14-02-1973 Cyprus.. A L 0-1 WCQ

Summary: 7/0. Won 1, Drew 1, Lost 5.

Ray Gaston

Name: Raymond Gaston
Born: 22 December 1946, Belfast
Height: 
Weight: 
Position: Centre-Forward

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 1 Full Cap (1968), 1 Under-23 Cap (1969), Youth Caps.
Club Honours: (with Coleraine) North-West Cup Winner.

Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Europe	Other
Coleraine	64/65	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Wolverhampton.W.	65/66	-	-	0 (0)/ 0	-	-	-	-
Coleraine	65/66-68/69	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Oxford United	68/69-69/70	-	£12,500	12 (2)/ 0	0(1)/0	-	-	-
Lincoln City	69/70	-	Loan	4 (0)/ 1	-	-	-	-
Coleraine	70/71-71/72	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Ballymena United	71/72	-	-	*9 (-)/ 2	-	-	-	-
Coleraine	72/73	-	-	*114(13)/63	-	-	-	-
Finn Harps	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
TOTALS	-	£-		-	0(1)/0	-	-	-

* all games, all spells

Biography:
Ray Gaston was a forward who had two bites of the Football League cherry, but it was with Bertie Peacock's Coleraine side of the 1960s that he made his name.

Having tried his luck with Wolves as a teenager, Gaston returned to a Coleraine side regularly challenging for the top honours. Although he failed to claim any major medals, the North-West Cup aside, Gaston impressed enough for Oxford United to take a chance on him, handing over a £12,500 fee early in the 1968/69 season.

The Manor Ground was never a happy hunting ground for Gaston, and he found the net just twice in his first season, and he made his final appearance for the club against Cardiff City in February 1969.

On the international front that season, Gaston made his only Full appearance for Northern Ireland in a 3-2 friendly win over Israel, coming on as a 70th minute substitute for Derek Dougan. That same season he also added an Under-23 Cap to his collection.

The 1969/70 season saw Gaston stuck in the Oxford United Reserves, and he made his final Football League appearances whilst on loan to Lincoln City in the Fourth Division in February 1970. Gaston moved back home in the summer of 1970. Over the following few seasons he played with Coleraine, Ballymena and Finn Harps with some success.

Coleraine FC Legend

Northern Ireland Cap Details:
10-09-1968 Israel.. A W 3-2 FR sub

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

Northern Ireland Under-23 Cap Details:
26-03-1969 Italy... A L 1-2 FR

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

Derek Dougan

Preceded by	Northern Ireland Captain	Succeeded by
Terry Neill	1972 – 1973	Terry Neill

The word "controversial" would not do justice to Derek Dougan's footballing career, and his antics in the thirty-odd years after he retired from playing...

Name: Alexander Derek Dougan
Born: 20 January 1938, Belfast
Died: 24 June 2007, Wolverhampton (England)
Height: 6.03 ft
Weight: 12.06 st
Position: Forward

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 43 Full Caps/8 Goals (1958-1973), 2 B Caps/3 Goals (1957-1959), 2 Amateur Caps (1956-1957), Youth Caps, 3 Schoolboy Caps (1952).
Club Honours: (with Distillery) Irish Cup Winner 1955/56; (with Blackburn) FA Cup Runner-Up 1959/60; (with Wolves) Football League Division Two Runner-Up (promoted) 1966/67; Football League Cup Winner 1973/74; UEFA Cup Runner-Up 1971/72; Texaco Cup Winner 1971/72; (with L.A. Wolves) US Soccer Association Champion 1967; (with Kansas City Spurs) NASL International Cup Winner 1969.


Club Career:

Clubs	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Europe	Other
Cregagh Boys	-	-	Youth	-	-	-	-	-
Linfield	-	-	Youth	0 (0)/  0	-	-	-	-
Distillery	-	-	Amateur	*76 (0)/ 17	-	-	-	-
Portsmouth	57/58-58/59	Aug-57	£4k	33 (0)/  9	3(0)/ 0	-	-	-
Blackburn Rovers	59/60-60/61	Mar-59	£15k	59 (0)/ 26	14(0)/ 4	3(0)/ 4	-	-
Aston Villa	61/62-62/63	Jul-61	£20k	51 (0)/ 19	5(0)/ 2	4(0)/ 5	-	-
Peterborough Utd	63/64-64/65	Jun-63	£25k	77 (0)/ 38	10(0)/ 7	3(0)/ 1	-	-
Leicester City	65/66-66/67	May-65	£25k	68 (0)/ 35	5(0)/ 1	3(0)/ 5	-	-
Wolverhampton.W.	66/67-74/75	Mar-67	£50k	244(14)/ 95	12(0)/ 4	22(0)/ 7	18(0)/12	11(2)/5
L.A. Wolves	1967	-	Guest	11 (-)/  3	(United Soccer Association)
Kansas City Spurs	1969	-	Guest	6 (-)/  4	(NASL)
Kettering Town	75/76-76/77	-	Free	-	(Southern League)
TOTALS			£139k	625(14)/246	49(0)/18	35(0)/22	18(0)/12	11(2)/5

* all games.

Biography:

It was as an amateur with Distillery that Derek Dougan made his name, featuring more often at left-half or on the left-wing than in the centre-forward role that would make him famous.  With the Whites he won an Irish Cup winner’s medal in 1956, scoring in an initial 2-2 draw with Glentoran before the match was settled after a second replay.  By the time he left Belfast in August 1957, aged just nineteen, Dougan had added Northern Ireland Youth and Amateur caps to those he won as a Schoolboy.  He had captained his club and featured in virtually every out-field position, and earned them a £4,000 fee from English giants, Portsmouth.

Despite preferring life in the half-back line, Portsmouth had signed Dougan as a forward.  Within months he was leading the line in the First Division and coming to the attention of Peter Doherty.  Doherty awarded Dougan a ‘B’ Cap against Rumania – he scored a hattrick in a 6-0 win and at the end of that season took him to the World Cup Finals.  Dougan had just 28 League appearances behind him.

Still just twenty years-old, Dougan’s inclusion in Northern Ireland’s World Cup squad was meant to be for experience only. But when regular number nine, Billy Simpson picked-up an injury in training Doherty called on the raw six-footer to lead the line for the opening match against Czechoslovakia.  Although the game resulted in a 1-0 win, Doherty felt that Dougan wasn’t quite ready for the Big Stage and it was his only game in Sweden – he was however assured that he had a bright future in the green shirt.

Transferred for £15,000 to Blackburn in March 1959, Dougan had already gained a reputation for speaking his mind.  He further cemented that reputation when he handed in a transfer request on the eve of the 1960 FA Cup Final – one of the few regrets he held from his long career.  That that match ended in a 3-0 defeat by Wolves is often pointed to as illustrating Dougan’s single-mindedness at the expense of the team.  While few would argue that he was strong-willed, he was held in high-regard by his fellow players for his work as Chairman of the PFA in the 1970s and in his role as spokesman for injured ex-players right up to his death.

Dougan left Ewood Park for Aston Villa in July 1961.  His time at Villa Park got off to a bad start when a car-crash ruled him out for three months.  Later he would become popular with the Villa faithful, earning the nickname ‘Cheyenne’, courtesy of his shaved head.  Further injuries caused Dougan to lose form and he fell out of favour with Joe Mercer and became frustrated with the game in general. In June 1963 he took the bold step of transferring to Third Division Peterborough.

The move down the divisions put Dougan’s international career on hiatus.  He had become a regular in the Northern Ireland team in the early sixties, scoring three times in nine games up to 1963.  When he returned to the side in 1965 he scored in a memorable 3-2 win over Scotland. However, the one criticism of the remainder of his international career was that, for a prolific marksman in the Football League, his goals on the world stage were rare, and he was guilty of missing a few sitters too.  Still, his fancy flicks and sheer enthusiasm have been long remembered at Windsor Park, and most would forgive his fairly average return of eight goals in 43 games.

His two seasons in the lower-league allowed Dougan to regain his form and fitness, and more importantly his love of the game.  He returned to the top-flight with Leicester in 1965, and moved on to Wolves for £50,000 in March 1967.  It was at Molineaux that he enjoyed the game the most and he became known as ‘The Crown Prince of Football’.  Nine goals in his first eleven games helped Wolves to promotion back to the First Division and over eight years he helped the club to the UEFA Cup Final in 1972 (where they lost to Spurs) and a League Cup Final success over Man City in 1974.

In July 1973 Dougan was instrumental in organising a match between a Shamrock Rovers XI (aka an All-Ireland XI) and Brazil. The match, with Dougan among the scorers in a 4-3 defeat for the Irish, was  opposed by the hierarchy of the Irish FA and the FAI also reportedly had reservations. Dougan alleged that the IFA President, Harry Cavan, instructed Northern Ireland manager Terry Neill not to select him again for the international team as way of punishment for his involvement. This allegation overlooks the fact that Dougan was in the twilight of his career anyway, had not scored in his previous ten international appearances, and had in any case not featured in the previous five Northern Ireland teams. Further, international careers of the other six Northern Ireland players included in the Shamrock Rovers XI team all continued unabated.

Dougan retired from full-time football in 1975.  His goalscoring feats included 222 League goals (a record for an Ulsterman) from 546 games and hattricks in the First and Second Divisions, the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. He became player/manager/chief-executive at Kettering Town and was quickly on the wrong side of the FA again as he introduced sponsorship to the team’s shirts.  Later he briefly returned for an ill-fated spell on the Wolves board.  For 25 years Dougan was seldom out of the spot-light, appearing on TV and standing for political office.  One of his final public appearances was as pall bearer at the funeral of one of old friends, George Best.

Blackburn Rovers-Vital Football Bio

Wolves-Stats
The Wolves Site Bio
Sporting Heroes - Wolves Pt 1, Pt2
Wikipedia Article
BBC Bio
Wolves legend Dougan dies aged 69
SoccerHistory Obituary
Nigel's Webspace - Dougan's Career in Cards

Northern Ireland Cap Details:
08/06/1958 Czechoslovakia N W 1-0 WCF
03/10/1959 Scotland...... H L 0-4 BC
08/10/1960 England....... H L 2-5 BC
12/04/1961 Wales......... H L 1-5 BC. 1 Goal
25/04/1961 Italy......... A L 2-3 FR. 1 Goal
03/05/1961 Greece........ A L 1-2 WCQ
10/10/1962 Poland........ A W 2-0 ENC 1 Goal
07/11/1962 Scotland...... A L 1-5 BC
28/11/1962 Poland........ H W 2-0 ENC
02/10/1965 Scotland...... H W 3-2 BC. 1 Goal
10/11/1965 England....... A L 1-2 BC
24/11/1965 Albania....... A D 1-1 WCQ
30/03/1966 Wales......... A W 4-1 BC
07/05/1966 West Germany.. H L 0-2 FR
22/06/1966 Mexico........ H W 4-1 FR
22/10/1966 England....... H L 0-2 ECQ
16/11/1966 Scotland...... A L 1-2 ECQ
12/04/1967 Wales......... H D 0-0 ECQ
21/10/1967 Scotland...... H W 1-0 ECQ
28/02/1968 Wales......... A L 0-2 ECQ
10/09/1968 Israel........ A W 3-2 FR. 1 Goal
23/10/1968 Turkey........ H W 4-1 WCQ 1 Goal
11/12/1968 Turkey........ A W 3-0 WCQ
03/05/1969 England....... H L 1-3 BC
06/05/1969 Scotland...... A D 1-1 BC
10/05/1969 Wales......... H D 0-0 BC
10/09/1969 USSR.......... H D 0-0 WCQ
22/10/1969 USSR.......... A L 0-2 WCQ
18/04/1970 Scotland...... H L 0-1 BC
21/04/1970 England....... A L 1-3 BC
11/11/1970 Spain......... A L 0-3 ECQ
03/02/1971 Cyprus........ A W 3-0 ECQ 1 Goal
21/04/1971 Cyprus........ H W 5-0 ECQ 1 Goal
15/05/1971 England....... H L 0-1 BC
18/05/1971 Scotland...... A W 1-0 BC
22/05/1971 Wales......... H W 1-0 BC
22/09/1971 USSR.......... A L 0-1 ECQ
13/10/1971 USSR.......... H D 1-1 ECQ
20/05/1972 Scotland...... H L 0-2 BC
23/05/1972 England....... A W 1-0 BC
27/05/1972 Wales......... A D 0-0 BC
18/10/1972 Bulgaria...... A L 0-3 WCQ
14/02/1973 Cyprus........ A L 0-1 WCQ

Summary: 43/8. Won 15, Drew 7, Lost 21.

Northern Ireland B Cap Details:
23/10/1957 Romania H W 6-0 FR 3 goals
11/11/1959 France. H D 1-1 FR

Summary: 2/3. Won 1, Drew 1, Lost 0.

Northern Ireland Amateur Cap Details:

15/09/1956 England. A L 2-5 BC

19/01/1957 Wales... A L 1-3 BC

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

Northern Ireland Schoolboy Cap Details:

19/04/1952 Wales... A L 1-5

02/05/1952 Scotland H L 2-5

10/05/1952 England. A L 0-5 

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