The Southern League Graduates (Part Four)

Players who started out in the league and have gone on to enjoy successful professional careers.

MIKE GIBSON was with Doncaster Rovers as an amateur and represented Derbyshire Youth which, in turn, led to England Youth honours.

He had spells as a youngster with Crewton Sports, Graham Street Prims and Burton Albion.

In the summer of 1958, he signed for then-Birmingham League side Gresley Rovers who were managed by former Derby County and England star Sammy Crooks.

Gibson played 18 games for the Moatmen before Crooks recommended him to his former Rams` team-mate Angus Morrison, who was in charge of Southern League North West outfit Nuneaton Borough, who he joined in January 1959.

It wasn`t until the start of the 59/60 season that Gibson made the first-team spot his own at Manor Park.

But then in March 1960, Gibson was transferred to Shrewsbury Town.

In addition to paying a fee, Shrewsbury guaranteed to send their first team to Nuneaton to play against Boro.

Gibson helped the Shrews to reach the League Cup semi-finals in 1960/61 and he made 76 appearances before Fred Ford signed him for Bristol City for £6,000 in April 1963.

It was said at the time that City had paid too much for the 23-year-old at the time. However, he went on to become one of the stars in the Robins` promotion to the Second Division.

Like many goalkeepers of his era, Gibson wasn`t the biggest, which probably prevented him from attaining First Division or even full international status.

Standing 5`9”, he was at a grave physical disadvantage against towering strikers.

But he more than made up for his lack of height with his bravery and shot-stopping ability.

In 1972, at the age of 33, and after making 331 appearances for City, he lost his place to Ray Cashley and moved to Gillingham, where he added 80 games to his tally before returning to Bristol to coach.

FRED DELL was a big, strong inside forward who started his career with his home-town club Dartford.

He became a regular in the Darts` Southern League Eastern Section and Central Section teams and starred as they became the first club outside the Football League to reach the FA Cup Third Round Proper in successive seasons.

In 1935/36 Dartford lost to a star-studded Derby County side who were second in the First Division at the time, 3–2 at the Baseball Ground having at one time led by 2–0.

Immediately after the game, Dell was transferred to Second Division West Ham United for a reported £2,000.

He made his League debut against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in September 1936.

After making just three more appearances for the Hammers, he was transferred to Doncaster Rovers where he played 29 times and scored 12 goals before having to go to War in 1939 and he never played seriously again.

Although TOMMY CARROLL`S career began back in his homeland of Ireland with Shelbourne, it wasn`t until he moved to England in 1964 to sign for Southern League Premier Division club Cambridge City that he made the step up in to the Football League.

He helped City finish in the top ten in successive seasons and had the unusual honour of being selected to play for the Republic of Ireland whilst being with a non-League club in the first ever under-23 game in 1966.

In the summer of 1966, Bill McGarry, then-manager of Second Division Ipswich Town, paid £1,500 to take him away from Milton Road.

He helped the Tractor Boys win promotion to the First Division and played 117 times before falling out with new manager Bobby Robson and being sold to Birmingham City in 1971 for £20,000.

By this time, the right-back had already been capped several times for Ireland as a full international, making it a full set as he was also capped as an amateur.

He made 38 appearances for Birmingham and took his cap-tally to 17, before returning `home` to manage his former club Shelbourne for most of the 1975/76 season.

In December 1976 he was appointed player-manager of Athlone Town in succession to his former Birmingham team-mate Trevor Hockey.

LEN CHALMERS was another right-back who graced the First and Second Divisions.

Born in the village of Geddington near Corby, he started his career with the Steelmen, coming through a very decent youth team which also included winger Andy McCabe, who moved to Chesterfield around the same time that Chalmers was snapped up by Leicester in 1956.

He went on to make almost 200 appearances for the Foxes but will be remembered mainly for two games in particular.

The first was his senior debut when City needed a last-match win at Birmingham City to avoid the drop from the First Division, and the 1961 FA Cup Final at Wembley when his bad injury proved to be the turning point (no substitutes then of course) as Tottenham Hotspur went on to complete the famous `double`.

He was a renowned tackler, affectionately known as `Chopper` was before Chelsea`s Ron Harris!

He was also a key figure in the 1961 maximum wage negotiations.

He went on to make 51 appearances for Notts County and he finished his career as player-manager for a while at Southern League Division One side Dunstable Town.

SYD HOWARTH was one of the many talented footballers who lost the best years of their playing career to the Second World War.

Born in Bristol in 1923, he is the son to former Bristol City and Leeds United forward Tommy Howarth.

He joined the RAF at the age of 17 and spent five years in the services during the majority of Second World War and was stationed in South Africa, Malta and then Palestine.

After the war ended, Howarth helped Merthyr Tydfil win the Southern League title twice, in 1947/48 and 1953/54 and also helped the Martyrs to win the Welsh Cup.

He was sold to Aston Villa for £6,500 but also made Merthyr more money as part of the deal involved a friendly match at Penydarren Park.

He also played for Swansea Town before the end of his career.

After being rejected as a youngster by West Ham United, JOHN MACKIE was working in a fruit and veg shop and playing in Division Three of the Isthmian League for Kingsbury Town before being picked up by Southern Premier League side Crawley Town in 1995.

He had four good solid seasons with the Reds before being snapped up by Alan Pardew for Reading in 1999 and was immediately shifted out on loan to Conference side Sutton United so he could gain more valuable experience.

He made his Reading debut in a League Cup defeat to Leyton Orient the following year – ironically the team he would join after leaving Reading in 2004.

On moving to the O’s, Mackie captained the side to their first promotion in 36 years in the 2005/06 season.

But Orient released him the following season and the defender pursued a move to Brentford, signing a two-year contract.

He captained the Bees for 14 appearances before leaving the club by mutual consent.

He retired from the game in 2008, going back to running a fruit and veg stall and playing non-League football for Isthmian Leaguers Hertford Town.

NEIL HARRIS is the current manager of Championship club Cardiff City.

However, he owes his start in the game to non-League football, initially briefly in the Eastern Counties League with his local side Maldon Town and then, most notably, with Southern League Premier Division outfit Cambridge City, who he signed for in 1996.

His form for the Lilywhites earned him a trial with Liverpool, but he wasn`t offered a deal.

However, in March 1998 he was sold to Millwall for a fee of £30,000.

Harris, who became a real favourite at The Den, made a full recovery after being diagnosed with testicular cancer aged 23 in 2001, and scored 138 goals over two spells with Millwall as a player.

He spent three fairly unhappy years at Nottingham Forest before re-joining the Lions in 2007 and took over as caretaker manager in March 2015 following their relegation to League One and guided them to promotion back to the second tier in 2017, after reaching the League One play-off final for a second consecutive season.

Under his stewardship the London club reached the FA Cup quarter-finals twice, in 2017 and 2019.

Harris, who briefly played on loan for Cardiff in December 2004, stepped down as boss at The Den in October 2019 after a seven-match winless streak left Millwall five points above the relegation zone and was appointed as manager of Cardiff in November 2019.