IT was supposed to be Dave Whelan’s big opportunity.
Now, more than 50 years on, the former Blackburn Rovers defender sees his positional switch as the beginning of the end.
Whelan’s early Blackburn Rovers career had been stop-start ever since making his first team debut at West Ham United in 1956 but the sudden loss of England left back Bill Eckersley during the 1958/59 season brought about a change in fortunes.
Boss Johnny Carey asked Whelan if he would switch from right back to cover Eckersley’s absence and, happy to play anywhere, he duly obliged, becoming Rovers’ regular left back until that ill-fated FA Cup final some one a half years later.
He ended his 10-year Rovers career with almost 100 appearances to his name, the majority of them at left back, but he believes his East Lancashire love affair could have been even better had he stayed true to his natural position.
Whelan’s last competitive appearance was when he broke his left leg in the 1960 Cup final defeat to Wolves - despite a two-year fight to return - and he blames the injury on ‘playing out of position’.
Whelan said: “When I was playing in the first team I was playing right back and Bill Eckersley was playing left back. I was playing a few games but I was not a regular.
“Then one morning Bill came into the dressing room for training and said 'Ive stopped playing, I am not playing any more'.
"It was halfway through the season. He went to see the manager and walked out.
“Suddenly we had no left back. So Dally Duncan called me in and asked me to play left back.
"I said I’ll play anywhere but it was the biggest mistake I ever made.
“I had been selected for England B at right back then.
"When he moved me to left back I was out of position but he had no other players. Basically that is how I came to break my leg a few years later.
“Basically you are going in with the wrong leg. A right back playing left back is always awkward.
"I wouldn't have got that injury if I was playing right back, I would have been better balanced and better protected.”
The product of a Rugby League environment, being brought up in Wigan, Whelan signed for Blackburn Rovers in 1953, after turning down attention from elsewhere.
It was the start of a love story with Blackburn Rovers that lasts even to this day, with him still cheering for the club from his position as chairman of Wigan, although the start to life at Ewood was a long way from the glamour of Premier League life today.
“Manager Johnny Carey came to see me personally in Wigan and that made a hell of a difference,” he said.
“Wigan Athletic were in the Lancashire Combination then and they put £200 down on the table for me to sign for them. Wolves, Everton and Manchester City also showed an interest.
“I got £10 for Blackburn, but when Johnny Carey came there was only one place I was going and that was Blackburn. I signed for Rovers when I was 17.
“I only signed part time though. My mum wanted me to serve an apprenticeship and so I was employed to work at Northrop Loom Company in Blackburn.
“I realised though if I wanted to get into the first team I had to go full time.
"We had national service to do at the time and I terminated my apprenticeship, went straight into the army for two years, and in that time I played for the first team quite a few times.
“I also played for the British Army team with Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards.
"We had a fabulous team then. I played in there for about 15 months.
"I came out of the army and became a full-time professional and that was the season we went up.”
Aside from helping Rovers to the 1960 cup final, Whelan’s biggest honour in his Ewood Park career was helping the club to promotion into the top division in 1958.
He had spent the majority of the campaign in the reserves but, when Ken Taylor got injured, Whelan stepped into the breach at right back to help the club win promotion with a thrilling 4-3 win at Charlton on the final day.
Whelan said: “I only got into the team about three quarters into the season.
"I played the last 10 or so games. I thought it was fantastic.
“We had to go to London on Tuesday night in the last week of the season.
"We were playing at Fulham on Wednesday night and they were fourth in the league.
“We were third, Charlton were second and West Ham were top.
"We had to go London and get three points to go up.
"We had to win and draw. We drew at Fulham 2-2, which meant we went to the Valley needing to win to go up. We won 4-3.
“The club promised if we got promotion they would take us to Holland.
"What they had done was arranged two matches to pay for the trip, which we didn’t know.
"We got three and six a day spending money. That is like 17.5p today.”
Whelan describes his first Rovers boss, Johnny Carey, as an ‘inspiration’ in his career and believes things changed when the former Manchester United man left to join Everton and was replaced by Dally Duncan, who joined them from Luton..
“Dally Duncan didn't have the discipline Carey had, he couldn't instil discipline into his players,” said Whelan.
“The first morning he arrived he had a meeting with the players in the dressing room and the first thing he said was 'if any of you in here do not roll your sleeves up and give 100 per cent to Blackburn Rovers you may as well walk out of the dressing room now’.
“Roy Vernon got up and walked out, which was challenging the manager.
"I think Taffy was trying to say don't be stupid we always fight and were fighting before you came here.
"So he has a crisis on his hands in the first five minutes of starting the job.
“He then doesn't know what to do and ends up selling Roy Vernon.
"He didn’t instil the discipline that John Carey insisted upon. He lost the players from that moment.”
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