Brendan Bradley

Born in Derry in June 1949, the footballing talents of Brendan ‘Beezer’ Bradley were apparent from an early age, and having lined out in the Derry and District League as a mere 15-year old, it wasn’t long before he had joined the ranks at Derry City F.C. Despite impressing for the Candystripes’ reserve team, however, and also making a handful of first team appearances (he had even scored on his debut in a North-West Cup final against Coleraine), City were happy to accept an offer of £100 for the seemingly lethargic, somewhat unassuming striker from Finn Harps manager Patsy McGowan in August of 1969.

Harps had just gained admission to the League of Ireland, but a 10-2 drubbing in their opening Dublin City Cup match against Shamrock Rovers prompted many to believe that the decision to admit them to the senior ranks had been extremely ill-advised. Bradley wasn’t listening, however, and having scored on his debut in a 3-3 shield draw with Dundalk, he went on to finish as the League of Ireland’s top goalscorer in the 1969-70 season, and propel the Donegal club to a respectable top-half finish.

Bradley repeated the trick the following season, and having finished in the top three of the scorers’ list again in 1971-72, he also fired the only the goal of the game (a piledriver from 35 yards) in the Dublin City Cup final against Cork Hibernians, to give Harps their first trophy as a League of Ireland club. A move across channel, to Lincoln City, followed in July of 1972, and 12 goals in his first 19 appearances for the Fourth Division side made a mockery of the £6,000 that Harps had received for his services. Harps, however, were faring surprisingly well in Bradley’s absence, being locked in a battle for the 1973 league title with the great Waterford team of the time.

A bad run of results and a change of manager at Lincoln City, as well as a dip in Bradley’s own form, saw the striker seek a return to his old club, and before the end of the season, Bradley rejoined his teammates in Ballybofey (McGowan had somehow managed to bring the striker back for just £4,000). Despite scoring in a 3-2 win over Waterford at Finn Park on the second last day of the season, Bradley was to be denied a championship medal, the Blues doing enough to take yet another league title, just one point ahead of Harps.

Normal service was resumed for Bradley in 1973-74, finishing joint-third in the League of Ireland goalscoring stakes as Harps finished fourth, but it would be his contribution in another competition this season that would prove far more significant. Bradley scored three goals as Harps made their way to their first F.A.I. Cup final, and scored two more in the decider itself, as the Donegal club lifted the trophy after a 3-1 win over St. Patrick’s Athletic. It would be the Derryman’s finest hour.

Having netted for Harps in their European Cup Winners’ Cup tie with Bursaspor of Turkey, Bradley proceeded to top the league goalscoring charts for a third time in 1975, and for a record-equalling fourth time the following year (he also won the 1976 Irish Soccer Writer’s “Personality of the Year” award), with a personal best season haul of 29 (including all six in a 6-1 win over Sligo Rovers) in 26 matches on this latter occasion. It was not enough to secure a league title for Harps, however, with a strong Dundalk side ensuring a second set of runners-up medals for the Finn Park club. A similar fate befell them in 1978 as well, when Bohemians edged them out by just two points. Bradley moved to Athlone at the end of this season, but left for Sligo Rovers the following year, to link up with Patsy McGowan. Bradley finished as the league’s second highest scorer in 1981 (he also picked up an F.A.I. Cup runners-up medal), before returning to Finn Park to once again join McGowan in 1982. He accounted for almost half of Harps’ league goals in 1982-83, and one more strike would have seen him share the top spot with Athlone’s Noel Larkin, and overtake Sean McCarthy to become the only man to head the list in five different seasons. Bradley had already moved clear as the most prolific striker in the league’s history, however, and by the time he wound up his career at his hometown club Derry City in 1986 (winning a First Division Shield medal, and scoring twice in a 3-0 F.A.I. Cup win over Finn Harps), he had amassed an incredible 235 League of Ireland goals. It seems something of an injustice, therefore, that despite his outstanding achievements, Bradley would never be capped by Northern Ireland, and was honoured by the League of Ireland representative side on just three occasions. Still a regular patron of Finn Park, Brendan Bradley was inducted into the F.A.I. Hall of Fame in 1999.