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DOOLEY: A world apart from today's millionaire players
DESPITE growing up in a football world with a ten-pound-a-week wage cap, you never heard Derek Dooley bad-mouthing the millionaire players of today.
He has no time for those who create huge headlines with their nocturnal antics and believed the majority of today's professionals are hard-working young men.
That may be the case, but none of them would know the game - or the world - that steelworker's son Derek Dooley played in.
"I remember one Christmas Day we were playing Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough. There was no public transport on until after 11am and only two of the players had a car," he said.
"It meant that I had to walk from my parents' house in Addison Road, Firth Park, to Hillsborough to play. I didn't think much of it, that's just how it was. There were 63,000 people there that day.
"I used to go to games on the tram or bus and the fans would say hello and occasionally tell me how we should be playing, but people were all right, that's just how it was.
"After games there was no players' lounge back then. I remember meeting my wife outside after a game when it was throwing it down with rain. She was standing there waiting under an umbrella for me and we got the tram home together along with the fans.
"I remember sitting on a tram coming home after a game against Notts County and a bloke got on as wet as if he'd been in the River Don.
"He sat down and started moaning, saying 'I kept heading for the exit to leave but that beggar, Dooley, kept scoring so I couldn't leave the game'. He had no idea I was sat right next to him.
"It's a different world now in money terms and I don't have any problem with players earning good money if they work hard. Most of today's professionals are well-behaved and dedicated."
The financial benefits for a footballer can be vast these days and the celebrity that goes with it can also bring perks as well as publicity.
But there was no getting to the front of the nightclub queue in Dooley's day.
"Sylvia and I used to go to the pictures at the Paragon, Sunbeam or Capitol. Sometimes, when the lights went up at the end of the film someone would shout 'there's Dooley' and people would start to clap," he recalled.
"They might have clapped but we didn't get in for free or have the best seats!"
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Friday 10 February 2012
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