Football photo scores with readers

Noel 'Nipper' Young is one of the fresh-faced young men who appears in the picture on the back row, third from right, and his son, Derek Young, from Grovemunt Court, near Altnagelvin Hospital, contacted The Sentinel to let us know that his dad had very much enjoyed reliving his memories of his glory days on the field.

The story came to light after the newsroom at The Sentinel received a letter from the team's former captain, Jimmy Shields, who still has a copy of his favourite weekly read sent to him in Gateshead, England, from relatives in the City, who was keen to hear from other players.

Contacting The Sentinel by email, Derek said: "The team photograph certainly did 'kick off memories' as I have seen it before with my father Noel (Nipper) Young pictured third from the right, back row."

He continued: "Like Jimmy Shields, my father played both local football (for Derry City, Ballymena United and Coleraine - winning a Gold Cup medal with the Bannsiders), and across the water for both Middlesbrough and Doncaster Rovers at the same time as the great Northern Ireland international goalkeeper Harry Gregg who went on to play for Manchester United and was in the infamous Munich Air Crash which killed so many of the Busby Babes in February 1958."

Derek also revealed that his father also represented the Irish League against a League of Ireland XI in which Jackie Milburn (then with Linfield), played No9 for the North.

He added: "I hope that others will have their memories jogged to fill in some more of the missing information jig-saw. It was actually my mother who passed on the paper to me. My father who is in the team photograph is now 76."

Producing another black and white photo - this time of Coleraine, he identified his father and one other person some of our older readers might know, while the younger generation will, undoubtedly have herad of his footballing son...

"To my father's right in this photo is Faye Coyle, father of Liam Coyle, who has played for Derry City in recent years," he said, adding: "I certainly would love to know, and I know other members of the Young family would love to know the names of the other players in our photograph. Can anyone help?

Anyone else who can remember the Boys' Club glory days and can shed light on the players in the Youngfamily photo are welcome to get in touch with their footballing memories by sending an email to [email protected], or can phone The Sentinel's newsroom on 028 7134 1175.

Letters can be sent by post to Feature Memories, Londonderry Sentinel, Editorial Department, Units 4&5 Spencer House, Spencer Road, Londonderry, BT47 6AA.