Legend On The Line: Vincent Dunphy

by Tom Flynn

(first published in the August 2010 Shelbourne match programme)

It was season 1949/’50, at the age of 13, with local club Hibernians, that Vincent Dunphy’s football life began, and he continued his schoolboys days up to the age of fifteen playing senior football at local level, where his team mates included Tony Weldon, later of WLR and music fame, and Jimmy O’Neill Snr who himself was playing and refereeing at League of Ireland level at the time. Towards the end of season ‘52/’53 Vincent had a short sample of League of Ireland football with Waterford, and then at 19 years of age he had the privilege of being a member of the Tycor  team who won the Munster Senior league at the first attempt, a team which included Terry Brett, Seamie Coad and Joe Blay.

In the ‘55/56 season a Mr McGoldrick, one of the directors at Sligo Rovers, brought Vinny to the Showgrounds for the last 8 to 10 games, the Bit o’ Red finishing 4th in the league, before he began a more permanent move to Kilcohan Park the following year. Tommy Taylor, the first choice keeper, emigrated to Malta for work and Vinny got his chance. He well remembers the Cup campaign of ‘59 which began with a 2-0 win over Drumcondra of Dublin; in the quarter final it was to be a 2-1 win over Dundalk, and a 1-0 semi-final victory against Limerick. We played St Patrick’s Athletic in the final with a scoreline of 2-2, so it went to a replay which we eventually lost 2-1. There was some consolation for Vinny as he was voted “footballer of the year” by the people of Waterford and received his statuette at the interval of the Opera Festival at the Theatre Royal!

The pitch he least liked to play on was Turner’s Cross, Cork – for a goalkeeper it was a nightmare when it became soft ground. The tops was of course Miltown, the home of Shamrock Rovers and, from memory Vinny recalls a league encounter with the “Hoops”, at home in 1959, where we were losing 4-1 with 30 minutes to go, but a miracle comeback saw the final score finish 6-5 to the Blues! In an away fixture against Sligo Rovers Vinny believes he was involved in somewhat of a record. With two minutes remaining in the game Sligo were awarded a penalty. After Vinny’s first save the referee said he had moved too early, then after the second save the linesman said he moved. On the third save the ref once again said he had moved, and at the fourth attempt Sligo scored, and the ref blew the final whistle!

His most difficult opponent was Frank O’Neill of Shamrock Rovers who had the most powerful shot. In his position, he recalls, Kevin Blount of Transport, and later Dundalk, was a top class goalkeeper. In 1963 he went across the water to Charlton Athletic but could not settle and soon returned home. When Alex Stevenson departed, Paddy Coad became manager, and Vinny remembers him as a first class coach, at a time when you had to be an all-rounder, as in those days there were no goalkeeping coaches. It was a pleasure to play with the great Con Martin, at 36 he was still a great centre half to support you. Peter Thomas eventually replaced Vinny in goal, but he still did some behind the scenes work for Alfie Hale in season ‘70/’71 before he retired from League of Ireland football.

He finished his career with a brief spell at local schoolboy club Ferrybank as goalkeeping coach, where he trained, among others, Sean Phelan and Brendan McDermott who had the distinction of playing for Ireland at Schoolboys and Inter-Colleges level respectively.