Remembering Mick Kennedy: 'Hardest man in football and proud of it'

Nearly half a century of supporting my hometown team hardly falls into the “glory-hunting” category.

But there have been special moments and special teams; none more so than my personal favourites during the 1980s under Alan Ball.

Christened “Bally’s Gremlins” because they played just as hard off the pitch as on it, they were epitomised by the captain Mick Kennedy.

Ah, you say, a Bradford City connection at last.

Kennedy was everything this teenage football fan loved - a ferocious competitor, a good footballer, and a real nasty so-and-so in the heat of battle.

When he did an interview with the Sun proudly proclaiming he was the “hardest man in football and proud of it”, the FA came down on him like a ton of bricks. Seventeen-year-old me, of course, loved it - and the club chairman secretly paid the hefty fine for him.

But the same chairman then flogged him to City behind our backs midway through Pompey’s first appearance in the top division in nearly 30 years - and the day after victory over hated rivals Southampton at the Dell.

Kennedy’s team-mates only knew of the move, that had been sanctioned to pay off mounting debts, when he told them on the bus to the game.

I’ve still got the back-page cutting from the local paper proclaiming proud victory on one side - and the captain’s exit the other. The highs and lows of the supporter in one edition.

Portsmouth, minus Kennedy’s bite in midfield, would go straight back down. City, as nobody reading this needs reminding, would agonisingly miss out on replacing them after play-off defeat to Middlesbrough - Terry Dolan’s “nearly” season.

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the public pronouncement that Kennedy was joining the Bantams. I’ve just about got over it now …

Having been “forced” to leave the south coast, in his own words, Kennedy got stuck into life at City as fiercely as with any of his clubs. And that was just in training!

“There were a few players around at that time that you dreaded being up against and he was one of them,” said Ian Ormondroyd, who winced at the memories of sessions in the indoor hall at Scholemoor.

Stix was interviewed for Kennedy’s biography “Tackle This?”, an entertaining and vivid account of a career that had begun at Valley Parade with a sub appearance for Halifax in September 1978.

His combative style made its mark even then.

“He tackled like World War Three has broken out,” said the Shaymen manager Alan Ball senior, whose son would later reap the best out of him.

The back page of the Portsmouth News on January 4, 1988 (Image: Simon Parker)

Every football supporter loves a player who gives 100 per cent every game and leaves everything out there.

Written by Halifax fan Johnny Meynell, the book demonstrates the affection in which Kennedy was held whichever shirt he wore.

His time with City began with a full debut at Luton in the League Cup quarter-finals - the night of Paul Tomlinson’s brain freeze.

But Dolan had brought in Kennedy to add steel to their promotion bid and that was in evidence straight away with a 1-0 win over Millwall at the Den, never a venue for faint hearts.

Kennedy came out on top in his personal feud with Millwall enforcer Terry Hurlock - the latest episode in an X-rated duel of which his former Portsmouth team-mate Vince Hilaire would advise everyone else to “stay well clear!”

Ormondroyd certainly felt the Salford-born Irishman toughened up those around him and City would lose only one of their next 14 games - at Huddersfield where Kennedy was pulled out last minute through injury.

Dolan even called the new recruit an “angel” with how he’d behaved since donning the claret and amber as Kennedy showed the passing ability with both feet that was often overlooked for his tastiness in a tackle.

Heartache would follow with the First Division dream ending in extra-time defeat at Middlesbrough’s Ayresome Park - and Meynell touches on the dressing-room row that allegedly followed in the aftermath between Kennedy and the departing John Hendrie.

Kennedy was hardened to promotion near-misses from his days at Portsmouth and Dolan gave him the captain’s armband when Stuart McCall was sold to Everton.

Mick Kennedy signs for City from Portsmouth in January 1988 (Image: Newsquest)

“Micky had a desire and determination to be a winner,” said his manager, “be it on a Saturday, during the week in training or playing cards on the bus.”

City, though, never threatened the upper reaches again the following season - but there were memorable knock-out victories over McCall’s Everton in the Littlewoods Cup and Tottenham in the FA Cup.

Kennedy supplied the pinpoint cross for Leigh Palin’s diving header to clinch victory over the Toffees. He had earlier left Everton winger Ian Wilson needing crutches after an enthusiastic challenge on his shin.

Kennedy then saved his finest City display for Spurs, where his quick-thinking in taking a free-kick early sprung full back Brian Mitchell clear to score the winner.

But Dolan’s departure would soon signal the end of Kennedy’s time in West Yorkshire. He didn’t see eye to eye with successor Terry Yorath and would be off to Leicester a couple of months later.

Very sadly, Kennedy died in February 2019 from a heart attack, aged just 57, a recluse who had turned to drink.

His biography is a worthy tribute and provides a nostalgic wallow back to a time when football was at its most raw and tribal.

Tackle This? The biography of football hardman Mick Kennedy is available from Legends Publishing.