Ryan, Reg: Ryan's Motto: One for all and all for one

Reg Ryan chats with Rams’ manager Harry Storer at the Baseball Ground in July 1955. Storer made it a priority to sign Ryan as the captain who could inspire the Rams to promotion from the Third Division North

Old pals reunited. Members of the Rams 1957 Third Division North Championship-winning team pictured at a reunion in 1996. From L to R are: Terry Webster, Dennis Woodhead, Reg Ryan, Tommy Powell and Ray Young

Reg Ryan (No 6) watches Rams goalkeeper Terry Webster collect a high ball against Chesterfield at the Baseball Ground in October 1955

Derby County with the Third Division North trophy in 1957. Back row, L to R: Harry Storer (manager), Martin McDonnell, Albert Mays, Ken Oliver, Terry Webster, Roy Martin, Glyn Davies, Ray Young, Ralph Hann (trainer). Front row: Jack Parry, Tommy Powell, Gordon Brown, Ray Straw, Reg Ryan, Dennis Woodhead, Allan Crowshaw

IT was a bleak Saturday afternoon in Birmingham, just before Christmas 1985. Along with thousands of other puzzled spectators, I was wandering about outside St Andrew’s where I was covering Birmingham City’s match against Watford for a Sunday newspaper.

Midway through the second half, a police inspector had strode on to the pitch and stopped the game. The IRA had phoned through a bomb warning and the stadium was cleared while the police searched it. Amazingly, after about half an hour, everyone was re-admitted and the game was played to its conclusion.

As I was shivering on the pavement, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see a man in a white raincoat, clutching a gin and tonic. He had recognised me from a radio interview I’d done with him some weeks earlier. Now he had a dilemma.

The St Andrew’s bar normally stayed open for an hour after the end of the game. Did I think it would shut, as usual, at about 6pm, he wanted to know. Or did I think the management would take the delay into account.

I couldn’t help him, of course, but it was still a delight to spend the next few minutes chatting again to Reg Ryan, former Irish international and FA Cup winner with West Brom – and, in the mid-1950s, the inspirational captain of Derby County when they fought their way out of the Third Division North by scoring more than 200 goals in only two seasons.

Before his death, at the age of 71, in February 1997, I was to meet Reg on several more occasions.

He was always genial company, even after illness forced him to give up his gin and tonic. An hour in his company never seemed longer than five minutes. And he always spoke fondly of the Rams, the club he joined from West Brom in July 1955 for a £3,000 transfer fee.

“Whichever club I signed for in my career, I always chose it for the man who managed it rather than the club itself. At Derby, that man was Harry Storer. He convinced me that he wanted me to come there to help revive Derby County.

“When I first came to Derby, Harry and I had long talks because we used to travel from Coventry every day in the same car. We discussed what was required for the players themselves because, when I first arrived, I wasn’t very pleased with the set-up that Harry had inherited at the Baseball Ground.

“There was no spirit in Derby County for a start. I got things changed so that soon we had spirit like the Three Musketeers – one for all and all for one. For example, there was no tea room for the players’ wives. The little things were missing at the Baseball Ground and I had to put them right in a very short time.

“I also had to command the players, but in a nice way, not showing too much aggression or too much favouritism towards any player, because, if you’ve got a right to criticise, you’ve got a right to praise as well.

“I thought Harry Storer was a great man. If he’d been in the game today, he’d have been one of the outstanding managers. He was a very well-read man who could quote Shakespeare, despite appearing to have a rough exterior. He was supposed to be a real tough nut, but he was quite gentle inside. And his knowledge of football was outstanding.

“Peter Taylor, who played under Harry at Coventry, reminded me a lot of him. They were both fine judges of a footballer. I did a lot of scouting for Harry later and he could certainly mould a bunch of players together.

“At Derby, he made me captain and I acted as a go-between. When we were on away trips, if the lads wanted a bit of pocket money to go out – remember this was in the days of the maximum wage for footballers – I’d go to see Harry and do battle on their behalf. That was the relationship between me and Harry Storer.

“He looked after the team; I looked after the players. There is a subtle difference, you know.

“Derby had just sunk into the Third Division when I arrived. The first year, we lost Jack Parry, our leading scorer, after Christmas. That cost us promotion. But, at the start of the following season, we knew we were rightfully odds-on favourites. Everything went for us. We wouldn’t think of playing away and not going for a win. That was out. It was taboo. We never played for a draw.

“It was a great team to captain, full of skilful players, with one or two tough guys as well. We should have done better after we got back in the Second Division, but we had too many old legs. But, I absolutely loved my time at Derby. I loved the club, the supporters and the town.”

Ryan, who was the Rams’ leading scorer in that first season after promotion, left for Coventry City in September 1958. He later worked as a pools organiser and scout for them and for his old club, West Brom.

Dublin-born, he had excelled at Gaelic football before taking up soccer. He was one of the new players to be capped by both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, when players from the south were allowed to play in the old Home International Championship.

Derby County fans of a certain age will remember Reg Ryan best as arguably the Rams’ most inspirational captain since the great Raich Carter.

I shall always think of the time he was less concerned about a bomb threat and more worried that the bar was about to close.