Frank O'Farrell's playing days: Crossing the tracks - from Western Rovers to West Ham

The Western Rovers minor soccer team pictured at Turners Cross. Included is Frank O'Farrell (back row, third from left). 22/06/1945 Ref. 899C /Old black and white /100 Cork Sporting Heroes ( Volume 1)

Frank O’Farrell was so pleased that he crossed the tracks to enjoy a long and distinguished career in football. As a youngster, all this young Irish lad ever wanted to do was drive trains like his Dad. “I’ve been blessed and I can have no complaints about the opportunities that life has given me,” said the Corkman who sailed across the Irish Sea to join West Ham from now defunct Cork United in January 1948.

Born in Dublin Hill, Blackpool. When Frank was five, the family moved to Turner’s Cross. Whatever talent he had for soccer had been nurtured by teacher Gerald Fitzgerald in the South Monastery, where he attended before the opening of Christ The King. There he captained the school team which defeated North Mon in the U14 final at Douglas. Luckily for him, Br Dermot, trainer, turned a blind eye as he was beginning his soccer career with Nicholas Rovers.

Turner’s Cross at the time was a hotbed of soccer. Frank lived in Friars Road seven doors down the street from Big Seanie McCarthy and around the corner were the Noonans, Eugene, Richie and Paddy all capped by the League of Ireland, and their brother Kevin.

Con “Brasso” McCarthy, another capped by the League lived just yards away on Congress Road while Tommy Moroney lived a kick of a ball away on Evergreen Road, which was the same distance to Peter Desmond's, also along Evergreen. Tommy and Peter played at Goodison Park in 1949 when Ireland became the first to beat the English on home soil.

When Frank was 16, he began working on the railway (based in Mallow), his dad drove locomotives and Frank spent a few years as a fireman standing on the footplate, hurriedly shovelling all the coal into the firebox.

“Football was easy after that," he said to Neil Welsh when he signed for Western Rovers from Clapton Celtic in 1945. Before Clapton, he enjoyed playing with St Joseph's while temporarily stationed in Waterford. He won a Munster Minor Cup medal with Western and at the same time gained experience playing Inter-House football against seasoned semi-pros with the CIE.

In 1947, before his 20th birthday, he joined Cork Utd as a replacement for Tommy Moroney who had transferred to West Ham. He signed as semi-pro and earned £3 a week plus £1 bonus for a draw and £2 for a win.

With Cork, he got to play with players like Seanie McCarthy, Florrie Burke and Dave Noonan and was on the team that won the Shield. He often had to travel up on the train from Mallow and borrowed his brother’s bike to cycle back to North Cork for the night shift.

Little did he know that after just six months he would follow in the footsteps of Moroney on whose recommendation it was that he was signed by West Ham.

His debut with the Hammers didn’t arrive until 1950 under Ted Fenton but he went on to make 213 appearances in Claret and Blue and became club captain. 

Frank had very happy memories of those years in London where he met the love of his life, his future wife Ann Sheridan, when both were in the Legion of Mary.

He left West Ham in 1956 and spent five years with Preston North End, where he played with England great Tom Finney. Frank won his last International cap against Czechoslovakia in 1959.

His first foray into management came at Weymouth, before spells at Torquay, Leicester, Cardiff, Iran, and most famously Manchester United.