Roy Welsh – Tribute (part three)
In the third and final part of our tribute to Roy Welsh, Distillery’s club photographer and programme editor David Hunter, with input from club director Terry Thompson, reflects back on a great and genuine friend of this club.
“It was back in the mid-sixties that I was standing alongside my father William at a bus stop in Belfast. He nudged me on the shoulder as a car drove slowly past us and said; “There’s Roy, Roy Welsh, he plays for Distillery”.
I saw Roy and that is my earliest recollection of him; but I would be privileged to be able to meet him, talk to him and photograph him at different times over the following fifty plus years. Roy never changed in all that time and if you look at the many, many, fully-deserving tributes on social media the same wonderful words and descriptions appear continuously – “gentleman”, “friend” “unassuming” “legend” “great” … the list goes on. A man who was hugely respected.
In our chats Roy would usually drop “Boyland” – Boyland FC, the famous youth football team in east Belfast, that Roy and so many other future top players in the Irish League and beyond would play for – into the conversation. He enjoyed his time there, he was proud of it and clearly it meant a lot to him. Nottingham Forest tried to sign him from there when he was 17 but in his unassuming way he would say “I turned it down, I thought I was a bit too young”.
He came from the Sandy Row/Donegall Road area of Belfast, not far of course from Grosvenor Park, from a footballing family that clearly had talent – his father played for Drumcondra, and Glentoran, brothers Eric – who played four times for Northern Ireland – and Alan turned out for The Whites during their football careers too.
Family was very important to Roy who was always level-headed and he went on to have a successful career as manager in The Albion – the well-known Belfast clothing manufacturer – and those would have a bearing on his next two offers to play across the water. In 1960 the club had agreed terms with Norwich City but as Roy often said to me; “But I was happy here, I had a good job. The maximum wage back then was £20 and I felt it was too much of a risk to leave Belfast and give up my job.” The transfer fell through.
His third chance came following an offer from Leicester City, and whilst I believe he was happy with terms, he was shortly to be married and decided not to go.
Whether you knew him as “The Blond Wizard” or “The White Wizard” at Grosvenor Park, he was easily identifiable on the park, and not being transferred meant he went on to be a wonderful player and servant with Distillery.
My father has supported Distillery for not far short of nine decades and one day a few years ago I asked him to name his all-time Distillery XI. Not surprisingly the selection was 2-3-5 and we went through his choice one by one, eventually getting to number eleven (traditionally back then an outside-left). He said “Read that team back to me” and after I had done that he added “Roy Welsh to go in at eleven”. “Roy on the left?” I questioned. He answered “Yes, Roy was too good a player to leave out, you would never leave him out of the team, he has to be on it somewhere.”
Roy came back to manage the club in 1975/1976 – those were testing times for him and the club itself in terms of survival. The loss of Grosvenor Park was traumatic to everyone connected with the club to say the least and even issues like training facilities were a test for Roy. Around then we trained up at The Dub, in Belfast, playing under (or often beside) lights mounted temporarily on posts. Roy would talk about the night they trained on the large roundabout in front of the House of Sport (the street lighting was better!) before the police politely moved them on fearing a road traffic accident. Enduring but memorable times.
He stuck with the job though and when the results became unacceptable to him he quit, in so doing giving someone else the opportunity to try and turn things around. He went on to Newry Town and Larne, being successful with the former and he was welcomed back for his second spell in December 1981 and developed a quality squad of young players and a few experienced heads to memorably win the County Antrim Shield at The Oval in 1985 – a great night.
He remains our only manager to ever lift the coveted “Manager of the Year” award. When he resigned in the 1986/87 season there were no complaints, our up and coming squad had been decimated by transfers to keep the club alive – a harsh reality for the club and its supporters.
But Roy was never lost to this club; he attended many re-union dinners, took place in “Meet the Manager” events, paid in through the turnstile when he came to a match and helped the club several times in an advisory role when it came to prospective managers.
He always had a smile and a friendly word for everyone. Away from football Roy enjoyed golf, a member at Lisburn Golf Club for almost 50 years, and working out. He kept himself remarkably fit over all the years, and he would be out running or training at the gym and many of you had met and spoken to him there.
The term “great” or “legend” is used all too glibly nowadays, but when you look at Roy’s footballing career both are accolades fully deserved. A wonderful person, his name will be forever etched in the history of Distillery and Roy – “a friend to us all” – never forgot us and equally we will never forget him.
Farewell Roy, a Distillery GREAT, LEGEND and FRIEND – “THANK YOU” from us all.
