Seamus O'Connell, of Bishop Auckland FC and Chelsea FC

The story so far .....

Bishop Auckland Town Hall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Eto'o of Chelsea scored a hat-trick against Man U on Sunday last. I discovered with a little help that a player called Seamus O'Connell who played for Bishop Auckland in the Northern League as an amateur had also scored a hat-trick for Chelsea against Man U sixty years earlier.

I have found a photo of this enigmatic footballer of my youth (see link at end). I saw him play for Bishop Auckland in the early 1950s.

 He lived his last years in Spain where he died last year. His last recorded public event was in 2005 when he returned from Spain to attend the centenary dinner at Chelsea.

He was one of the sons in a family of cattle dealers and like many talented young men from a family business he played his sport as an amateur. That meant he was officially unpaid for his play but it was well-known that amateurs of his calibre received 'travelling expenses'. The maximum wage for a professional footballer at that time was around £12 a week during the season.


See his photo and more info follow the link

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3092356/title/seamus-o

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