There are some players you just identify with more than others. Ron Manley was one of mine and I’m sure for lots of my generation. He was part of so many great days in his 13 years as a first teamer that it’s impossible for anyone of our generation not to feel a real sense of loss at yesterday’s news.
I didn’t know Yorkie when Ronnie McFall gave him his debut as a 17 year old all those years ago. But he was about 3 weeks older than me and we all knew he was a Glenman so he’s one of that tiny band of diehards turned player who came to HIS Club as a kid and didn’t leave till he’d achieved everything he could as a Glens player. Then when he had achieved it all he came back to sit among us every week.
There are so many memories of Ron that it’s hard to decide what ones to include in a tribute to him. For me there’s his first 2 goals against Larne a couple of months after his debut. There’s his fantastic opener against the Blues at the Oval the year we won the league unbeaten (I’ve been trying to source the wonderful photograph of it that was on the front of “The Ulster” but with no luck so far. I’ll keep trying). The day a mate (who was in his class at Grosvenor) and I drove to the Newry Showgrounds for a pre season friendly to avoid the Charles & Diana wedding and to see Dermot Keely’s debut but who left remembering a brilliant Ron Manley hat trick. His solo wonder goal in the European Cup against CSKA Sofia that nearly took us to what would’ve been the biggest shock win in our European history. The five goal haul against Bangor to let us know his partner in crime Blackie wasn’t going to have it all his own way after coming back from France. The wonder goal against the Blues at Windsor that none of us saw because of the fog. Showing Roy McCreadie he wasn’t one to be bullied at Coleraine one fraught afternoon. Or his last great performance before the injuries took their toll, his brilliant hat trick at Windsor in the League Cup Final against Larne. My absolute favourite though was probably his hat trick in a nine goal home hammering of Larne one day in 1983 when Ronnie McFall’s great Glens team really clicked in a way very few teams do. Possibly the most complete Glens performance I’ve ever seen with Yorkie leading the way.
Ron was part of great partnerships at the Oval. His first and most memorable was with Gary Blackledge, especially when they shared 55 goals in the “invincibles” season. He was also a great partner for Gary Macartney in the 1988 “double” team. But one season when neither was there he got the number 9 shirt and really thrived as the main striker, scoring 30 beside Gerry Mullan as we won the Irish Cup for the first time in a decade. But as Ronnie McFall said earlier, one of Ron’s greatest strengths was his ability to make great players even better. No one would question that Blackie and G-Force were very special players but for me we can never forget just how much work Yorkie put in for them. Work that eventually took its toll on him later in his career when he missed a lot of matches through wear and tear. Who knows what records he could have broken or how many more medals he’d have won if he’d stayed fit in those last few seasons. I’m sure Tommy Jackson as his last manager at the Oval missed him.
After leaving the Glens after 13 seasons, 376 appearances and 138 goals, Ron had three seasons as a first team player at Cliftonville where he’s acknowledged as having played a major part in helping the Reds make the cut for the first post-relegation top division. The tributes paid by Cliftonville supporters on social media show the affection he’s held in, in that part of North Belfast.
In a way you could say Yorkie would have done even better in the modern game with the tendency of so many teams to play a single striker. In the years when Eddie Patterson was struggling to find the right centre forward for his system I said plenty of times that the one Glens player who really would have fitted it was Yorkie. Also who would have been a better partner for Curtis in his first few seasons at the club? There was so much to his game that he could have played and thrived in any formation we’d chosen to play. A complete centre forward.
In his retirement from playing Ron rarely missed a Glens match, always seen having a cup of tea in the 1923 Clubroom (where he was a Vice President) at half time and in the players’ lounge after the match. Even as recently as last Saturday I saw him at the Ballymac GSC Annual Summer Party. Another club where he was a long standing Vice President.
In the last few years we’ve lost two of our own, far too young, in Robert Craig and now Yorkie. For our generation it’s a real part of our youth that’s gone with Ron. But as someone who probably saw every goal Yorkie scored for us (apart from the one in the fog, obviously) he’ll always be that 19 year old who scored that screamer past Dunlop in January 1981 to set us on our way to the title.
Thanks for the memories Yorkie. Le Jeu Avant Tout.
Ian Clarke
22nd June 2018
