Doog In Dock For Temporary Exit

Thought we’d learned everything there was to know about Derek Dougan? Think again!

More insight into his complex personality has been shed by one of the forward’s former Leicester team-mates.

And the memories contain an explanation as to how the Molineux legend’s friendship with Sammy Chapman once landed him in hot water with those in charge in the East Midlands more than 60 years ago.

‘Likeable Irishman’, ‘a real Jekyll and Hyde’, ‘inclined to be lazy’, ‘loveable rogue’ and ‘led the forward line with unique flair’ are included in the variety of in-print assessments of a player whose career had tailed off considerably in the early 1960s.

So, too, are the recollections about how he once gave 30 yards’ start to the 17-year-old Bob Mackay in a race round the Filbert Street track in training and still beat him easily.

“Derek was big and lanky, about 6ft 3in, but seemed to float round,” said inside-forwad Davie Gibson in his autobiography. “He was long-legged and deceptively quick, a bit special.

“In another exercise, I couldn’t believe it when he picked up two medicine balls and ran a lap with one under each arm. I could hardly lift one.”

Gibson summed the target-man up by saying he ‘must have been a nightmare for a manager’ but added: “You couldn’t leave him out even if you never knew which Doog was going to turn up.”

The Scot lamented the departure of his pal from the club in the second half of 1966-67 and sympathised with him over the circumstances of his hasty fall from favour and subsequent move to Wolves.

Manager Matt Gillies took his players for a break in Brighton after Leicester’s FA Cup knockout against Manchester City had created a blank weekend and Dougan’s decision to use it to visit his old pal, Chapman, along the coast in Portsmouth backfired on him.

“His reputation caught up with him, rather unfairly in my opinion,” Gibson added. “We watched Brighton play Chelsea in the Cup and, in the evening, the lads went out for a drink.

“Sunday was a free day, so Derek decided to visit Sammy Chapman in Portsmouth. I was rooming with Derek and, the following morning, there was no sign of him when our trainer, David Jones, knocked on the door.

“Shortly afterwards, Derek appeared and explained that the weather had been so atrocious that he stayed overnight and I believed him. I told him he’d better report to David quickly as he was pretty upset. When he eventually returned to the room, I jokingly asked how much he’d been fined and he said: ‘Nothing. They’re sending me home.'”

Dougan was transferred to Wolves not long afterwards and embarked on an eight-year love affair with the Molineux masses.

Gibson remains convinced the deal wounded the Foxes considerably. “To say I was shocked by the news was putting it mildly,” he wrote. “I was sad to be losing a good friend and a footballer who, with 41 goals in 76 appearances, demonstrated the talent he really had. What a bonus for Wolves!

“With hindsight, it could have been the start of our decline, leading to relegation in 1969.”

Gibson, who won seven caps for Scotland, scored his first Foxes goal in the 1-1 draw at Wolves in March, 1962 soon after moving south from Hibernian. He then underlined his liking for facing Stan Cullis’s side by scoring twice at Molineux in a 3-1 win in December of that year.

Gibbo: The Davie Gibson Story was published by Amberley, costs £15.99 and was ghost-written by Chris Westcott, who was also the co-author of Ernie Hunt’s autobiography.