When, in a league game, the Manchester United full back and captain was out sprinted by the referee it was at that moment that Johnny Carey accepted that it was time to hang up his boots.

Carey had arrived at Old Trafford as a callow yet precocious 17-year-oldfrom the Dublin club St James’s Gate in 1936. Although, initially he had played Gaelic football.

It was to become a happy and hugely successful alliance between United and Carey. He stayed for 17 years making 416 appearances (112 during Wartime) and scoring 64 goals. Carey was 7 years the Team Captain between 1946 and up to his retirement in 1953.

By any measure, and in any era, Johnny Carey was the consummate full back and professional. A measured stylist, yet uncompromising in the tackle and an outstanding tactician on the pitch. His Manager, the equally great Sir Matt Busby had little to worry about with Carey as his eyes and ears on the pitch. Sir Matt rated the Irishman highly and regarded Carey as conceivably his finest asset. Under Carey’s on field leadership United won the League title in 1951/52, the FA Cup in 1947/48 and the Charity Shield in 1952. In addition, he was voted the Football Writers Footballer of the Year in 1949, and had the honour of captaining both the Ireland teams ( FAI XI and the IFA XI) and was captain of the Europe XI which played a GB XI in 1947.

Just as Johnny Carey’s United season and playing career ended, events were also unfolding at Ewood. Jack Bestall had been the Rovers Manager for some 4 years and a somewhat underwhelming 9th place finish to the 1952/53 season was viewed with a certain amount of ambivalence by the Ewood faithful. It became obvious that similar misgivings were being shared in the Rovers Boardroom, and of equal importance too by Mr Bestall himself. There was no nonsense talked in those days of “losing the dressing room” or players becoming publicly disaffected but rather a mutual acceptance from the parties within the Club that a change at the helm was needed.

Mr Bestall’s tenure came to an end, with the Directors and the departing Manager severing their ties in the most amicable of circumstances. MrBestall summed it up perfectly when he said “I shall be leaving in a friendly atmosphere…...the relationship is still the same as it has been during the four years I have been here.”

In the wake of this latest parting of the ways, the Rovers were now looking for their fifth post war Manager – Messrs Hapgood, Scott and Bruton the previous incumbents before Bestall.

Within football the name and standing of Blackburn Rovers was still highly regarded and conjecture surrounded whether the Club would go for someone at “the top of the game” or cast their net elsewhere.

Old habits seemed to die hard as the Rovers Board adopted a somewhat cloak and dagger approach to their recruitment. The Chairman, Mr Blackshaw confirming that they had nobody in mind. There was not a great deal of fan fascination in those days with managerial change as there is today and so it was, almost without flourish that the Rovers announced the appointment of Johnny Carey as their next incumbent. Indeed, it was all matter of fact following the finalization of the appointment at a Board meeting on 29th July 1953. Mr Carey met the Board at the conclusion of the meeting and the following day the players were informed prior to the commencement of pre season training. This was undoubtedly a coup of a capture by the Rovers, since Mr Carey had been offered a key coaching role at United. You could surmise that it was on a par with Dalglish’s capture but without the money and the razzamatazz.

This being the start of a new season, the Chairman expressed the hope that Mr Carey would get down to the job and settle in as quickly as possible. For his part Mr Carey stated that he was very happy to come to a club so highly thought of as the Rovers and that he “wanted to play attractive football that wins matches.”

The remarkable thing about Carey’s appointment was the absence of a contract or any specified timescale for achievement, although the avowed intent remained to win promotion back to the First Division. Mr Carey, in dispensing with a contract, believed he should be judged on results as he was still “learning the job” hence the reason he considered the signing of a contract to be pointless and not worth the paper it was written on.

In securing Johnny Carey, the Rovers had acquired a prized footballing possession.   A young first time Manager, Carey was 34, but of more importance a highly regarded football man, with an unblemished reputation to play attractive and expansive football – winning football.

Carey was a popular choice for the Rovers, though quietly spoken with a lilting Irish accent he planned meticulously and was a firm believer in having a long term “soccer plan” in place. Carey subscribed to the concept that to be successful you had to introduce a style of play which benefitted the players available rather than the other way round. This winning philosophy was reinforced by Carey’s reputation as a master tactician, and with an eye to the future, the development of home bred young exciting players. Looking ahead, to say that he achieved both these objectives would be an understatement.

The opening day team of the 1953/54 season was familiar to me and other Roverites and would continue to be so except for a change in the wingers as the season wore on.

Elvy, Suart, Eckersley, Clayton, Kelly, Bell, Campbell, Crossan, Briggs, Quigley, Glover.

The emergence of young talent Bill McLean and more significantly the purchase from United of Scot, Frank Mooney impacted the right wing but it was the return of the old warhorse, Bobby Langton on the left which captured the Rovers following’s imagination. At an economical fee from Bolton, Langton’s re-arrival was based on prudence and inspiration, and so it proved.

True to his word, Johnny Carey’s emphasis was matching the entertainment value with a group of players who were more than capable of executing his game plans. The first season was anchored around mature experience with a team whose average age was untypically high. What could have been an Achilles heel was a strength and four of the back six played all but one League game.

Yes, there was an unexplained hiccup during Carey’s first season, the 8 – 0 reversal at Lincoln but essentially an excruciating 3rd place finish laid down the marker of what was to come.

Carey had transformed the Rovers, there was a cohesiveness, a fluency, there was entertainment galore and a realization that no matter the opposition, Rovers could outscore them. All five forwards were capable of consistently hitting the net. In season 1954/55, all five ended in double figures – Briggs 33, Quigley 28, Crossan 18, Mooney 16 and Langton 13. The “Fabulous Five” were producing a feast of football. 114 League goals were scored.

Under Carey’s tutelage seasoned professionals flourished and following the Rovers at home and away was eagerly anticipated and a joy to watch. Outstanding performances beckoned almost every game and at times were transformed into the unbelievable. Tommy Briggs’s 7 goals in a thrilling 8 – 3 win over Bristol Rovers at Ewood and the 9 – 0 demolition of Middlesbrough, also at Ewood.

It was champagne football but ultimately without the final fizz. Carey’s relentless pursuit of that elusive promotion was always within touching distance. League finishes of 3rd, 6th, 4th, 4th in consecutive seasons tantalized the supporters and it seemed unimaginable that given the performances, the goals scored and the quality of football played that Rovers ambition of a return to the First Division had not yet been achieved.

It was in 1956/57 that Carey’s team morphed into absolute promotion probables. The prudent signings of ‘keeper Harry Leyland, and his Everton compadre, Matt Woods (to my mind  the greatest  best value for money player the Rovers have ever signed) and a blond-haired winger , Ally “Noddy” MacLeod from St Mirren,  soon to become one of the most popular players to have ever graced Ewood.

Sentiment was dispensed with as the faithful old guard stepped down and youthful talent and exuberance replaced them. It was the precursor to Carey’s goal.

Great servants like Willie Kelly, Eric Bell, Bill Smith, Ronnie Suart, Reg Elvy, Eddie Quigley and Bobby Langton were all replaced – only that great goalscorer Tommy Briggs found a place in the team but even he, despite 32 goals in that season, was struggling with a niggling injury and relatively inconsistent form.

Johnny Carey’s focus on, and priority for youth development remained unswerving. Clayton and Mooney had become regulars but there were others on the cusp of first team introductions – McGrath, Dobing, Vernon and Douglas. The latter two the most naturally gifted footballers that Rovers and Carey ever spawned. That subtle switch of Vernon and Douglas from winger to inside left and vice versa was not only inspirational but genius. Ironically, the one victim of that collateral damage was young Mooney who succumbed to the irresistible mastery of Bryan Douglas.

This metamorphosis was a heady mix of experience and youth. Added to by Roy Stephenson’s arrival from Rotherham via Burnley and, at the business end of the 1957/58 season, the shrewd acquisition of the craggy Scottish goalscorer, Tommy Johnston from Leyton Orient. This was the final piece in Johnny Carey’s jigsaw and marked out the Manager’s acute football acumen and set the seal on what was an absorbing, entertaining and high-octane season. A season which also included a place in the FA Cup semi final.

Having survived the agony of 4 near misses, promotion was finally achieved, albeit in the final game of the final day. Carey had done it! Rovers had done it! Mr Carey had made good a promise to promote the Club, achieved with limited resources, relatively meagre expenditure and a heady mix and abundance of footballing skills.

A rip-snorting start to life back in the First Division saw the Rovers dispatch Newcastle, Leicester and Spurs, all three games in which Rovers netted 5 times with just the one reply. Even a sorry 6 – 1 reversal at Old Trafford couldn’t dampen the mood of the Ewood faithful as the crowds backed their team with such force.

Sadly, Rovers success under Johnny Carey had not gone unnoticed, principally by an Everton Club struggling at the foot of the table. They weren’t labelled “the Bank of England” Club for no reason. It was a challenge, Mr Carey was not about to pass over.

The Rovers Chairman, Mr C R Davies admitted that “It is bad news indeed at such a time. Mr Carey has been a great man for us, not only with the players but in his great interest in every aspect of the club”

Despite last minute counter offers the Rovers failed to hang on to their prized possession and, with a certain amount of personal sadness on his part, the lure of Everton was too much to turn down for Johnny Carey. 

It wasn’t just the first team that occupied Johnny Carey’s thinking he had equal motivation in youth development of players. Supporters had already witnessed the rising talent of the likes of Douglas, Vernon, Dobing, McGrath, Bray, Whelan et al yet there was an undercurrent of opinion which further excited Rovers followers. A current crop of “Carey’s Chicks” as they became known, principal amongst them Fred Pickering, Michael England and Keith Newton, all to become future full internationals and all later sold for large fees, were to be key members of the Rovers FA Youth Cup winning team later that season (1958/59)

With Mr Carey’s persuasion, the Rovers had invested in floodlighting at the Anchor Ground Darwen where, away from the glare of first team duties and public gaze, Carey worked meticulously with coaching these future stars and assets. There was a strong belief that the Rovers were able to attract youngsters from far and wide, simply because parents and players alike revered Johnny Carey rather than Blackburn Rovers.

So on 20th October 1958, Johnny Carey commenced his tenure at Everton only to return to Ewood in 1960 to wrestle away the mercurial but brilliant Roy Vernon from Rovers.

Following spells at Leyton Orient, where he again gained a promotion to Division 1 and Nottingham Forest where he built a team capable of challenging for the title, the “gentleman of football” was back with the Rovers in 1970, initially in an administrative capacity, working alongside one of his former players, Eddie Quigley and then, in a reversal of roles, as Team Manager. These were dark days for Rovers and the pair were sacked as results and performances hit rock bottom. There is no sentiment in football.

Johnny Carey’s contribution to the Rovers is writ large in our illustrious history. His leadership, on and off the field, his tactical acumen and his ability to recognise natural talent and develop it, together with a footballing philosophy which excited, entertained and engendered success, and bore the hallmarks of greatness. Carey was paternalistic rather than authoritarian. He encouraged freedom of expression rather than prescription and embraced the audacity of youth alongside experience.

The Rovers, certainly in my lifetime as a supporter, have, in the main had some gifted and genuine managers who have nearly always enjoyed a modicum of success. The ultimate is perhaps Dalglish because he delivered (with more than a little help from Jack Walker) the Premiership title.

Yet, who would deny the quiet, affable pipe-smoking genius that was Johnny Carey a place at that top table?

His influence, achievement and his mastery were epitomised in the skills and abilities of his charges both at Ewood and elsewhere.

Johnny Carey was/is undisputedly a Rovers great, in the true meaning of the word, who sprinkled greatness on those he managed.

Johnny Carey passed away on 22 August 1995 aged 76 years.