Scott mecca Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 (edited) Hi I’m new to the page so hope I’m doing this right, I’m just wondering if anyone has any information for me about Peter phelan (my grandad) I believe he played around 1970 not sure if he played for the first team or not. he is on the front row of the 1970-71 watney cup winners photo he once told me clough came and got him from home as he used to get home sick and just go home after away games thanks for reading scott Edited May 17, 2022 by uttoxram75 angieram, Carl Sagan, whiteroseram and 3 others 1 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott mecca Posted May 5, 2022 Author Share Posted May 5, 2022 I believe he may of played in the central league so may of played for the reserves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angieram Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 On 05/05/2022 at 09:08, Scott mecca said: Hi I’m new to the page so hope I’m doing this right, I’m just wondering if anyone has any information for me about Peter phelan (my grandad) I believe he played around 1970 not sure if he played for the first team or not. he is on the front row of the 1970-71 watney cup winners photo he once told me clough came and got him from home as he used to get home sick and just go home after away games thanks for reading scott A little bit before my time but there are lots on here who may remember him. I wonder whether @Crewton or @Brailsford Ram can help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 (edited) On 05/05/2022 at 09:08, Scott mecca said: Hi I’m new to the page so hope I’m doing this right, I’m just wondering if anyone has any information for me about Peter phelan (my grandad) I believe he played around 1970 not sure if he played for the first team or not. he is on the front row of the 1970-71 watney cup winners photo he once told me clough came and got him from home as he used to get home sick and just go home after away games thanks for reading scott I remember Peter Phelan. He never played in the first team but he certainly played in the Reserve team in the Central League when Clough managed Derby. Because I was watching the first team home and away I only went to the Reserves mid-week games when the first team weren't playing. Clough involved a few Reserves around the Watney Cup winning squad without playing them. That tournament was in the pre-season of 1970-71. He was still with Derby in the 1971-72 season. Fifty years tomorrow we clinched the First Division Championship. We also won the Texaco Cup and the Reserves won the Central League title. Peter Phelan made one appearance and two as a substitute in the Central League that season. I think the club released him at the end of the season. I think he joined as an apprentice professional aged 15 or 16. If you look at the Thread entitled 1971-72 season scrapbook on this forum, on page 24 just last week I did a post about the Reserves winning the Central League. You will see your grandad's appearances are mentioned at the bottom of the post. The post will give you some idea of the players he played with. These were very special times for Derby County. The fact that your grandad rubbed shoulders as a player with Brian Clough should make you very proud. I hope this is of some help. Edited May 7, 2022 by Brailsford Ram Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crewton Posted May 8, 2022 Share Posted May 8, 2022 Brailsford has a far better memory than me! I'm afraid I don't recall Peter Phelan at all. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 8, 2022 Share Posted May 8, 2022 (edited) On 05/05/2022 at 09:22, Scott mecca said: I believe he may of played in the central league so may of played for the reserves He is sitting on the extreme right of the front row in this team picture just in front of Brian Clough. The picture is the pre-season photo 1971-72 which is the start of the Clough Championship winning season: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/derby-county-line-up-for-a-team-photograph-at-baseball-news-photo/1224666261 Edited May 8, 2022 by Brailsford Ram Additional paragraph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 8, 2022 Share Posted May 8, 2022 On 05/05/2022 at 09:22, Scott mecca said: I believe he may of played in the central league so may of played for the reserves this is end of season 1971-72 with the League Championship, Texaco Cup and Central Legue trophies. I think Peter Phelan is sitting second from the right on the front row. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott mecca Posted May 8, 2022 Author Share Posted May 8, 2022 Thank you very much for getting back to me and sharing your knowledge about my grandad and the time he was at derby and thank you for sharing photos I will pass them onto family they will be over the moon. Scott Brammie Steve, Boycie, mozza and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brammie Steve Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Glad you're making progress Scott! Your grandad was part of a great squad during its golden era! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozza Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Glad you took my advice Scott, told you there are some knowledgable people on here, hopefully you will get more useful information. Please post any information you may have about your grandad, as he is part of the reason we are all lifelong Rams fans. Welcome to the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 2 hours ago, mozza said: Glad you took my advice Scott, told you there are some knowledgable people on here, hopefully you will get more useful information. Please post any information you may have about your grandad, as he is part of the reason we are all lifelong Rams fans. Welcome to the forum. Mozza I exchanged a pm with Scott yesterday and he has sent me his email address. As I, and probably some of you other forum members too, sensed when we saw Scott's post, Peter Phelan sadly passed away recently RIP. He was proud of playing for Derby but did not speak in great depth about his time here. Understandably Scott is keen to find out more. I have sent a message to John Turner who shared goalkeeping duties with Graham Moseley in the Central League title winning team. I am pretty sure John, who went on to enjoy a long League career elsewhere, started as an apprentice with Peter Phelan. John is reputed to have an extremely good memory of the football world and I think he might be able to help. I'm also about to message Don O'Riordan, who joined Derby on the day Leeds beat Arsenal in the 1972 Cup final. Don was a boyhood Leeds fan. Two days later, on the night Leeds lost at Molineux and we clinched the title, Don was having a kick-around with his mates outside his home when his elder brother came out to tell him "I've some bad news and good news for you. Leeds won the cup but lost tonight but you just signed for the First Division Champions." Don seems to still have a very good memory about his career, so hopefully he might have some information to help Scott too. Of course if any other members of our vintage who have a memory of Peter see this, please contribute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkFruitsRam7 Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 3 hours ago, Brailsford Ram said: Mozza I exchanged a pm with Scott yesterday and he has sent me his email address. As I, and probably some of you other forum members too, sensed when we saw Scott's post, Peter Phelan sadly passed away recently RIP. He was proud of playing for Derby but did not speak in great depth about his time here. Understandably Scott is keen to find out more. I have sent a message to John Turner who shared goalkeeping duties with Graham Moseley in the Central League title winning team. I am pretty sure John, who went on to enjoy a long League career elsewhere, started as an apprentice with Peter Phelan. John is reputed to have an extremely good memory of the football world and I think he might be able to help. I'm also about to message Don O'Riordan, who joined Derby on the day Leeds beat Arsenal in the 1972 Cup final. Don was a boyhood Leeds fan. Two days later, on the night Leeds lost at Molineux and we clinched the title, Don was having a kick-around with his mates outside his home when his elder brother came out to tell him "I've some bad news and good news for you. Leeds won the cup but lost tonight but you just signed for the First Division Champions." Don seems to still have a very good memory about his career, so hopefully he might have some information to help Scott too. Of course if any other members of our vintage who have a memory of Peter see this, please contribute. Top man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 On 08/05/2022 at 15:35, Scott mecca said: Thank you very much for getting back to me and sharing your knowledge about my grandad and the time he was at derby and thank you for sharing photos I will pass them onto family they will be over the moon. Scott Scott. Here is a colour photo of the 1972 team squad. I actually think now that it was the official pre-season photo for 1972-73, which indicates your grandad was still here in that season when the team reached the European Cup semi final before losing to Juventus. It was later proved that Juventus had bribed the referee in the first leg in Turin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott mecca Posted May 13, 2022 Author Share Posted May 13, 2022 Or that’s grate lads thanks for all your help and the photo, The family will be over the moon angieram and I know nuffin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brammie Steve Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 Wouldn't it be great to know what Cloughie was joking with Jimmy Gordon about in that photo! Maybe Scott's grandad heard it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 (edited) Just an update for all of you who took an interest in Scott's post about his grandad. With Scott's help I have been able to confirm that he was an apprentice professional with the club during the 1970-71 and 1971-72 season when we won the Watney Cup, League Championship, Texaco Cup and the Central League. Peter Phelan played in the Central League and the 'A' team in the Midlands Intermediate League. He appears on the two team photos attached to this post but not on the 1972-73 photo with the three trophies that I previously posted. He was released in May1972. He then had trials with Norwich City but he was not offered a contract. After that Peter continued playing non-league football for clubs in the North-East. We have been able to identify the names of all of the players, Peter played with at Derby. All of the names are familiar to me and I am in the course of setting out all of the information I can provide Scott with about them. Peter was from Co Durham and Scott said that he was homesick for a time and Brian Clough had helped him through this. Interestingly, the Board minutes from November 1971 show that Cloughie reported that Peter had been fined £10 and suspended for one week for a breach of club discipline. However, it was not the usual way of club punishment which was otherwise invariably limited to a fine as the club wanted to keep the players in training and available for selection. Although we may never know for sure, I think that Cloughie may well have offered Peter the chance to go home for a week on condition that he forfeited £10, which equated to the weekly pay of a second year apprentice at the time. It was the type of thing the manager would do. Peter died on May 2nd and his funeral is to be held on May 24th in Peterlee. To wear to the funeral, Scott has bought a Derby County club shirt with his grandad's name and number on the back. He is very appreciative of the kind response you all gave him when he started this post. From all of us, in memory of Peter, I have arranged for Amazon to deliver to Scott a copy of David Moore's book 'Derby County Champions At Last - A Diary of the Rams Triumphant 1971-72 Season' with the message: To Scott Metcalfe from DCFC Fans Forum in memory of your grandad, Peter Phelan, who was an apprentice professional football player with Derby County under Brian Clough from 1970 to 1972. 'Once A Ram always A Ram' RIP Edited May 17, 2022 by Brailsford Ram Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uttoxram75 Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 Wow, what a lovely gesture @Brailsford Ram ? bimmerman, LeedsCityRam and Dordogne-Ram 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richinspain Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 Fantastic gesture @Brailsford Ram Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angieram Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 Brilliant, @Brailsford Ram. Thank you from us all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 Scott sent his thanks to the forum with these photos of him and his dad after Peter's funeral on Tuesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account.
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now