WHEN I first started following Halifax Town towards the back end of the 1978-79 season, Mick Kennedy was already established in the first team.
He’d come through the youth and reserve teams but was seen by manager George Kirby as a key member of his side, with a desire to be a winner and giving everything he had in games, even though Town were bottom of the Fourth Division. Today, all players are put through organised pre-match routines but back then Mick cut a lone figure on the Shay pitch half an hour before kick-off as he went through his own warm-up before heading off back down the tunnel to join his team mates. I’d watch transfixed. At times, with The Shay just a vast expanse, with the speedway track and surrounding grass banks, it felt like there was just me and him in the ground!
The 1979-80 season saw the club’s fortunes take a turn for the better, and Mick Kennedy was part of the side which famously defeated Manchester City in the third round of the FA Cup. It was arguably his greatest performance in a Town shirt. Mick played every minute of game that term, never subbed or substituted, illustrating how important he was to the side.
Imagine my shock and dismay when I read in August 1980 that Mick had signed in a record Shay deal for Huddersfield Town. I asked myself why anyone would want to leave my club. But Mick was destined for better things and in hindsight, no one could blame him for leaving.
Occasionally he’d pop up on TV screens when Huddersfield, Middlesbrough, or any other of the clubs he turned out for were chosen for Match of the Day or local networks.
His name is readily associated with Portsmouth, where he was skipper in his first two seasons. He was at Fratton Park for three-and-a-half years before making a shock record move to Bradford City. He linked up in midfield with Stuart McCall, and was manager Terry Dolan’s choice as skipper once McCall left for Everton. He featured in City’s famous cup wins over Everton and Spurs, but left shortly after the arrival as manager of Terry Yorath.
When I learned of Mick’s death in February 2019, I was saddened. I felt it greater than other players I’d watched because just a couple of months earlier I’d acquired his phone number. Regretfully, I never got around to making that call. I had tentative ideas of organising a reunion of the side that beat Manchester City and the following year the players got together at The Shay. Mick was represented by his cousin and uncle.
It was in the wake of Mick’s death that I discovered just how loved he was, not so much as a player on the pitch, because he was a nasty piece of work - not my words, they’re his - but as a person in the clubs he played for. I read hundreds of tributes posted by fans, mostly from Portsmouth, where he was revered, and I reckoned his was a story worth telling. Those messages inspired me to put together a lasting tribute to Mick, and with the blessing of his family, I set about piecing together his life and career. What a journey - his and mine!
I contacted many who worked with or watched him from the terraces, there are contributions from former colleagues and team mates, including Mickey Bullock, Paul Hendrie, David Pleat, Mick Buxton, Mark Lillis, former Middlesbrough keeper Jim Platt, Vince Hilaire, Chris McMemeny and Kenny Swain. Forewords have been penned by Steve Kindon and legendary Portsmouth keeper Alan Knight. All united in their total admiration for a player who, whilst admitting that nobody liked to come across him on the field, was a top guy away from it.
After calling time on his playing days, Mick moved to County Clare and took up coaching and managing. I spoke with many who served under him, including Mike Heath, brother of former Shay boss Billy Heath. Mick was a tough task master but commanded total respect, that is made clear. He courted controversy on more than one occasion yet his story is full of humour. There’s no degree of irony in the title; as Mick said himself, he loved a tackle and was, when needed, master of the dark arts. It’s a story that will interest supporters of clubs he played for, including of course Bradford City.
Here are some excepts: Of his move to Bradford City, Kennedy was adamant he’d joined to help them reach the First Division. Speaking with David Markham in the T&A, he said, “I haven’t served my apprenticeship in the First Division by playing 20 games for Portsmouth not to want to go straight get back there. I was virtually forced to leave Portsmouth to help their financial position and I am joining Bradford for one reason only - to get back to the First Division as soon as possible. I just want to play my own game, which is winning the ball and giving it to others to create - while creating things myself, of course. I have a will to win”...”and I will just add to it.”
City picked up their league programme on February 6 with a crucial fixture at Millwall, one place above the Bantams and four points better off, thus Kennedy made his first official league start for the club in a match that would not be for the faint-hearted, as games at The Den often weren’t, but it was the sort he relished, with a baying crowd on his back. City won through a single Ian Ormondroyd goal to get back on track and the lanky striker was quick to acknowledge the contribution of Kennedy, not just in that match, but generally around the club: ‘Terry brought him in to give the team a bit more steel and shake the other players up. We used to train in an indoor hall in Scholemoor in bad weather and he’d, shall we say, toughen us up. We needed to be a bit more forceful and he changed us in that respect. There were a few players around at that time that you dreaded being up against and he was one of them.”
l ‘Tackle This? The Biography of Football Hardman Mick Kennedy, by Legends Publishing, is due out in October, £22.50. Pre-order at www.legendspublishing.net
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