Past Players

Darren started out as a striker with the under 8 age group, managed by Stephen Coakley and Ken O’Carroll, and played at that position until reaching under 10 level. “Quiggs” as he is affectionately known was reeking havoc with the opposition defences, and scored more than 70 goals in the two seasons that Valeview Shankill Schoolboys were playing in the Wicklow league. The club decided to seek fortunes in the Dublin and District Schoolboy League (DDSL), and Darren initially played as striker with the team. As the fortunes of the under 10 team declined, with goal raining in on them, Darren decided to get in “nets” to try to stem the tide of goals conceded.

This was to be his first taste of ‘net minding’. Darren played two seasons at the Under 11 age group due to changes on the DDSL regulations. Part of that season Darren played at centre half and striker, before returning to goalkeeping, where he remained. Unfortunately, the under 11 team disbanded.
“Playing football with Valeview was the most enjoyable years I’ve had, because I was playing with friends. There was no pressure to play football, simply pure enjoyment and lots of encouragement”.

Not wanting to abandon his fledgling career, Darren attended trials for St Josephs Sallynoggin playing in his now favoured position as goalkeeper. Darren attended Cabinteely Secondary School and completed his Junior Certificate. He played with Joeys until under 15 level. He was nurtured there by Austin Mullen who provided him with specialised goalkeeping training. At under 13 level Darren came under the spotlight when he was selected for the Kennedy cup team with the DDSL. During that competition he came to the attention of a host of English scouts. He was invited for trials at Sunderland, Aston Villa, and Everton.

Darren is an avid Manchester City supporter and when he was offered a trial, he could hardly contain his delight. City jumped at the chance to sign Darren. However, due to regulation of the DDSL although he was permitted to travel for trial at the age of 14 he was not allowed to sign for them until he was 16 years old. Manchester City was so keen to sign him that the juggled the rules and offered Darren a position as a green-keeper so they could have him over there at the tender age of 15.

Kevin Keegan, the legendry Liverpool striker and former England manager, signed Darren and offered him a four year contract. Darren recalls that during his stay he was picked up for training every morning by another apprentice Shaun Wright-Phillips who is now a Chelsea Galactica.
“I remember been giving a bollocking by Stuart Pearce during training one day”. Pearce or Psycho as he was known during his playing days is now the current Man City manager. Another legend of the football world Alex Stepney was in charge of the goalkeeping training at that time.

Life at Man City began very well for “Quiggs” as he settled into the routine of a professional footballer. City knew the Shankill lad was special, and Darren lapped up the fabulous training facilities on offer. “I was in awe of the place everything was top notch”. Darren was in good company for amongst the apprentices there were Irish lads Stephen Ireland and Willo Flood. After only three weeks at City, Quiggs made the “bench” for the reserve team, at the tender age of 15, this was indeed a measure of his talent.

It worth noting that the majority of player have to spend some years as an apprentice before they get selected for the reserves. They usually go through the process of playing at under age level, then A teams, before the reach the reserves. The reserve team was studded with stars that included many first team players and international players like Paul Robinson, Joey Barton, and Gary Kelly.

While his career was blossoming at Man City, Darren was gaining International recognition having played for Ireland at all levels up to this stage. Darren recalls “My first International call up was an away tournament with a match against Holland at under 14 level. Paul McShane (West Bromwich and Ireland) and Andy Keogh (Wolves and Ireland) were in the team. The buzz I felt when the National Anthem was being played was fantastic, I was so proud to represent my country”. Back at Manchester City Darren was making startling progress when disaster struck.

He received an injury that fractured his arm during training the very next day after been on the bench, and to add insult to his injury, it was caused by fellow Irish man Willo Flood. Darren was out of action for 5 long months. “This was the most depressing time of my life” recalls Darren. Long hours spent in rehabilitation waiting for the fracture to heal, trying to maintain his level of fitness and kill away the hours, boredom was the toughest opponent he ever met. Darren explains “We usually train from 10am to 12.30 every day. At that time the apprentices were paid peanuts and 80% of my money was spent on phone credits. I was living alone and there is only so much time you can spend playing on play stations, there was nothing else to do”.

Living away from family and friends in a strange county with a debilitating injury, would take its toll on any adult let alone a 15 year old. Soon the understandable home sickness set in and cast doubts in Darren mind. He recovered from injury and restarted his career with City. He continued to notch up international caps and it was during an under 16 international tournament in Belgium that Darren decided to return home to his beloved Shankill.

Darren continued his education and spent 5th and 6th year at St Laurence’s College and completed his leaving Certificate. He rejoined Joeys under 16 team and stayed with them until he completed his schoolboy days. Darren continued his international career winning caps at Under 18 and 21 level. Now out of schoolboy football Darren initially signed with Kildare County in the Eircom League but then went to UCD as that was the team he believed where he would get a first team chance, as UCD that had that reputation of giving young player an opportunity to shine.

Of all the internationals Darren has played two stand out in Darren’s mind. Holland away at under 21 level was one. Darren recalls that “it was a great match to play in, we were very unlucky to be beaten 1-0. Evander Sno the Celtic star was orchestrating in midfield, he is a fabulous player. Azerbaijan is the other, a very poor country. I had to look up the atlas to find out where it was as I never heard of it before. It was a daunting task to play there. We won 2-1”. Darren to date has one Ireland B international cap which he earned against Scotland B on 14th November 2006,and is looking for more. “The competition for places is very stiff, we have a lot of talented players coming through at the moment. All I can do is continue to play as well as I can”.

Darren was invited to Falkirk, West Ham, and Fulham for trials in January 2007. “Falkirk is like a university campus and I enjoyed it there. I roomed with Anthony Stokes which made life easier for me. At so many other clubs there are cliques and everybody is wary of you when you arrive. After all you are trying to get their place on the team, so not everybody is welcoming, in fact some don’t like you because they see you as a threat to them, some don’t even want to talk to you”.

Darren is enjoying life at UCD and trains Sunday, Monday and Wednesday under the guidance of John Power and plays a game on Friday.
“The standard of football is very good in the Eircom League. The move to Summer soccer has had a positive effect on the game".

Darren feels strongly about the drain of players from clubs like Valeview Shankill Schoolboys to more prominent clubs in the area. “Its horrible to see kids going to different clubs in order to play “A” team football. I think that the kids themselves want to stay at their local club, sometimes it parental pressure that makes them go. If you are a good player and you are 13 years old and not with an “A” team its not the end of the world. Players like Kevin Doyle made it to the top at the age of 22. I am convinced that had the under 11 team not disbanded, some of us would certainly have gone on to be successful”.

Darren is assured of a great future in his chosen career and we at Valeview Shankill Schoolboys F.C. wish him the very best for the future.

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Ian Morris earliest memories of football was watching his Dad Andy play for Rathmichael Shankill Football Club. His dad Andy, was a gritty gifted midfield general who pulled the strings for his club. Ian’s football pedigree goes further with uncles Peter and Dermot Cleary both star players with Valeview’s senior team. From the time he could crawl, Ian always had a football at his feet, it was inevitable that young Ian would follow in his dad’s boots. Ian signed up for Valeview Shankill Schoolboys when he was five years old and slotted into a midfield role, he played with the club until under 11’s level. The DDSL review of the age rules made Ian eligible to play for two seasons at under 11.

Coached by Stephen Coakley and Ken O’Carroll the team made rapid progress through the league until the under 11 team disbanded. Along with his close pal Darren Quigley he tried out for St Josephs and played with them for three years. The first inkling of Ian’s talent came when he was selected to represent the DDSL in the Kennedy Cup. Paul Duffy, who was linked with Lourdes Celtic, spotted Ian’s midfield flair, and persuaded Ian to sign for Lourdes Celtic.

“Paul was always helping me to improve my game. He could see my weaknesses and would talk about ways to improve on these. I had a good left foot and I had plenty of stamina, but I was never the most gifted of players, not your golden boy. I had to work extremely hard on my game”.

Paul recognised one weakness in Ian game, he needed to develop quick feet to get out of situations quickly. At this Ian displayed his determination to become a top player. At the age of 13 he borrowed his Dad’s ladder and went over to Shanganagh Park on his own. There he laid the ladder on the ground and began to run up and down the ladder placing his feet between the rungs as fast as he could. He maintained this exercise whilst playing for Lourdes under 13’s,14’s and 15’s.

As Ian’s footballing skills developed he received International recognition. He has been capped at all age levels from under 14’s up to under 21’s and has captained Ireland at every age level to boot. “Playing for your country is the highest accolade one can get in football, pulling on the Irish jersey makes you feel extremely proud and honoured to be part of the team. Being selected as captain gives added responsibility, you become a spokesman for all the players, meet with the manager and voice their concerns to them. The manager will also use the captain to relay messages to certain players on the pitch. For example he would inform you of any change of tactics during the game and its up to you to communicate with the other players.”

When Ian reached the age of 15 interest in him was shown from abroad. He was invited to trials at Everton, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Southampton, Sunderland, Fulham, Blackburn, and Leeds. Ian recalls one summer when he constantly boarding flights to the UK taking part in trials. “In August I only had three days off for the whole month. I was trying out for a number of clubs, over and back to England, and was completely shattered by the end of it. When you go on trial you are training and playing with other hopefuls and battling with the club’s own Academy lads. Everybody is trying to get noticed by the coaches”.

Ian decided to plum for Leeds United and was offered a four year contract. “At Leeds there were a lot of Irish lads there, which make life easier for me. David O’Leary was the manager at the time and other Irish there were Gary Kelly, Ian Harte, Robbie Keane, and Andy Keogh. At that time Leeds were in the semi-final of the Champion’s League and were 4th in the premiership, so things were looking great”. When Ian moved to Leeds the club were undergoing a major infrastructural change.

“When I arrived the new facilities were almost completed. The new training facilities included a full sized Swimming pool, Sauna, Steam room, Jacuzzi, 2 Physio rooms, weights room, Ice room, full sized indoor pitch, 6 changing rooms, Café, and 8 outdoor pitches which were perfect like a billiard table.”

As part of his apprenticeship, like all other, Ian was faced with carrying out less glamorous jobs such as cleaning the boots of the first team squad, sweeping floors, cleaning benches and weights room, and they had to bring out the training equipment, balls, bibs, cones. The also had to help unload the catering lorries of food and drink. Ian recalls that he ran into a slight bit of trouble with a senior player.

“ I had to clean Jason Wilcox’s boots one day, and he was not too happy with the shine I had put on them. Jason moaned a bit an said he would have done a better job himself…, I said to him… you know what you can do in the future then. Because I had answered him back I was made to wash and shine his car. I had trouble finding his car in the car park because he said it was a Porsche, but the car park was full of Porsches, Ferraris, and Aston Martins. It was only good banter between us. ”

Three and a half years into his apprenticeship Ian was ever present in the youth and reserve teams and had played in friendly matches for the first team. As is normal with premier club, good prospects are often “loaned” out to other clubs so that the player can gain valuable experience playing first team football.

This was the case for Ian. He went on loan for a month to Blackpool who were managed by Colin Hendry, formally a imposing centre half playing with Blackburn Rovers. Ian was now 18 years old and he bedded in well at Blackpool so much, that they extended his loan deal for another three months, and then offered a further extension to the end of the season. Ian was playing as a left sided midfielder and was always encouraged to attack down the left flank. He scored three goals in 31 appearances for the Seasiders.

“Going into Bloomfield road stadium (Blackpool’s home ground) was an amazing experience. Walking into the dressing room, and seeing my name up on the shirt was a great thrill as was signing autographs. I enjoyed playing with Blackpool especially as I was a first team player.

Ian returned to Elland road for pre-season training. He played a number of first team friendlies against Nottingham Forest, Grimsby Town, and Scunthorpe United. Ian felt things were going very well in pre-season. Amongst players vying for first team places in Ian’s position were Jonathon Douglas, Liam Miller, and Steve Stone. In August the Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell summoned Ian to his office.

“Kevin told me that there were a few clubs interested in signing me, and he gave me permission to speak to the clubs. Carlisle and Scunthorpe were very interested. I was very settled in Leeds and I felt that Carlisle was a bit of a distance for me to travel, however Scunthorpe was a half an hour’s drive from Leeds so I signed for them. Apparently Scunthorpe were tracking my progress all summer and I had scored two goals against them when I was playing for Blackpool.”

Ian signed for Scunthorpe on 30th August. This season 2006/2007 Scunthorpe won the Cocoa Cola League 1 Championship and Ian scores three goal in the course of the season. Scunthorpe United manager Nigel Adkins comments "Ian is good on the ball and uses it well and also works very hard." On the International front Ian continues his excellent progress eliciting excellent comments from manager Don Givens after a tournament in Maderia “Ian Morris was immense in midfield. That’s as good a performance as I’ve seen from him.
Ian is assured of a great future in his chosen career and we at Valeview Shankill Schoolboys wish him the very best for the future.

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Stephen Brennan (Bray Wanderers)