John Halpin is joining diners at hospitality in the 1907 Lounge on Saturday 7th February, entertaining fans about his time at both Dale and Carlisle United.
A product of the Celtic Boys Club, winger John Halpin signed for the Bhoys in September 1978 after a spell at Armadale Thistle. The Broxburn-born player had an abundance of pace and liked nothing more than running at the opposition full-back, he was part of a very successful Celtic reserve set up which spawned Bonner, Nicholas, Crainie, Weir, Willie and Paul McStay, making his first team debut in a 4-0 Scottish Cup victory at home to Queen of the South marking the occasion with a late goal.
He left Celtic for Carlisle United in October 1984 after 14 appearances and one goal, having a successful spell there but when the big English sides came looking he suffered with injuries that hampered his progress.
John moved to Rochdale for the 1991/2 having made over 160 appearances at Celtic and Carlisle United, who he joined as a thrilling winger for the Blues before injuries affected his career. At Dale, he played 31 times, scoring once before he made a decision to move on taking in consideration his injury situation “The manager, Dave Sutton, asked if I wanted to stay another year but I knew in my own mind I couldn’t do it, I was finished. I couldn’t run about the way I used to and I thought if I take another year I’m just stealing another contract, which wasn’t fair on Rochdale because they were really good to me” Dale beat Gretna in the FA Cup during his time there with a quote from a Gretna fan being “He played for Rochdale when they hammered us 5-1 at Spotland, can’t remember who our right back was that night but John Halpin destroyed him”
John has fond memories of his time at Dale with a few stories of the relationship between the management team and the players.
“After I signed for Rochdale we went to Scotland for pre-season training, I arranged to be picked up at Southwaite services on the M6 and as the coach pulled up I went to meet everyone, 1st person of the coach being Dave Sutton. He walked straight passed me taking off his t-shirt and lay down on the grass verge to get some sun whilst the lads went to the service station” “In early February we went to Spain to push us on fitness wise before playing the 2nd half of the season and after we had arrived Sunday evening, had a couple of hours socialising then back to the hotel. Monday morning we were on the beach early for a heavy running session, after we finished Mick Docherty got the squad together and announced that everyone had to go back to the hotel shower and the last player back to the beach bought the 1st drink-we stayed there the whole day and every other day after that” “On the last night Manchester United were playing Southampton in an FA cup replay at Old Trafford, Dave Sutton announce if Southampton won we could stay out late, Southampton won on penalties, we celebrated like we had won the FA Cup”
John’s next move took him to Gretna and during his time there came a fantastic opportunity, which he remembers well “just by chance, at that time, I met David Wilkes (Carlisle United coach) and he said there was a job coming up at the Club namely the Community Officer’s job if I was interested. I met the manager, Aidan McCaffery and the Professional Footballers’ Association, who ran the Community Projects back then and it went from there”
John retired from the position at Carlisle recently but continues to assist community programmes organising school visits and coaching walking football but mainly is trying to bring his golf handicap down.
