It was 60 years ago this Easter that Jim Cooley first introduced himself to local football.
He was playing up front for Wealdstone who had just won the FA Amateur Cup in front of 45,000 fans at Wembley.
Jim didn’t score that day at the Track, but laid on one of the visitors’ four goals and, most importantly, during that visit to the island, the man born in Twickenham, Middlesex, in 1938, came across a Guernsey girl who he’d soon marry and in time make him a converted islander, one that would ultimately become a big influence on island football and take on the senior Muratti coach’s job.
Jim Cooley loved football and was very good at it, be it as a centre-forward who used every inch of his 6ft 2in frame, or as a coach bolstered by the experience gained from more than 1,000 amateur games in the UK, from which he scored 400 goals.
To this day, the former Army player and a West Ham and Brentford signing, remains an all-time Wealdstone hero after his one brilliant season in their colours yielded 31 goals in 52 games and ended in that Wembley win and that life-changing trip to Guernsey, as well as the now defunct Staines Town, where he was widely regarded as one of the finest players ever to wear their gold and blue.
Guernsey fans only got a brief glimpse of his playing talent, but in a busy decade as a club and genial Island coach he would establish a reputation as one of the most tactically superior and respected representative coaches the island has ever had.
Before his venture into Muratti coaching and for those not among the 800 at the Track that watched Wealdstone demolish an Island XI in 1966, Jim introduced himself to local football as a striker under Roy Lucas’s leadership of Sylvans in the 1974-75 season.
At the age of 36 and his best days clearly behind him, Jim, attracted to the westerners through a strong family connection with the club, still managed nine goals from 18 games, including a hat-trick.
In the summer of ‘75 he agreed to take on the St Martin’s first team coaching role and immediately had an impact on a domestic scene dominated by the great Vale Rec side.
He gave himself one start that first season at Blanche Pierre Lane and scored to add a final flourish to that 1,000-plus goals career tally. More importantly for Saints followers, he led his new club to a 4-2 Martinez Cup triumph over the league champions.
Bit by bit Jim’s Saints inched closer to the Vale juggernaut and in the spring of 1977 he ended his second season in charge by forcing a title play-off which Rec edged 1-0 at the Track.
The following campaign Saints, by now bolstered by the arrival of the likes of Colin Fallaize and Rodney Webb, won a Wheway-Jeremie Cup double and the elusive league success was just 12 months away.
With Henry Davey assisting him, Jim finally put black and white ribbons back on the old trophy and in a momentous 1978-79 campaign he also steered his men to two big victories over crack Jersey side Oaklands in the Wheway final (2-0) and Upton (3-2), as well as an historic appearance – the first for a Guernsey club – in the FA Vase.
But Jim, by then keen for a break from football, felt he had taken Saints as far as he could and took two years out before reappearing in charge of a pretty young and unspectacular Sylvans side.
It proved far from easy for Jim at St Peter’s, but he stuck it out for four seasons and throughout combined it with managing the senior Island team.
His record as Island boss was mixed, having started in great fashion, winning the 1980 final at Springfield, 2-1 after extra-time.
But Jersey would triumph in the next two finals and following the narrow 1982 loss in the sister isle, he criticised the GFA for not sending even one official with the travelling squad.
By the mid-80s Jim had given up all coaching involvement, but still followed the local game, occasionally walking up to Blanche Pierre from the family home nearby and he saw much good in the creation of Guernsey FC.
Fast forward to 2013 when the Green Lions were pushing hard for their own Wembley appearance, Jim, now well into his 70s, revealed himself to be a big GFC fan, loving their style and attacking game.
‘I do pick and choose the games I go to, but I love watching them play in such an exciting and attacking manner. Full credit to Tony and Colin, because they have created an attack-minded team.’
Looking back at his wonderful day out at Wembley, the adopted Guernseyman with a big smile told former GP football reporter Matt Lihou: ‘It was the best day of my career…it is the ground where every footballer wants to play and it was an incredible feeling’.
Having left Wealdstone, he then moved to Chesham United and Leatherhead and it was while at the latter he underwent a knee cartilage operation.
In 1969, he moved to Spartan League club Staines Town and played a major role in the club’s success over the following years, helping them gain promotion to the Isthmian League and win the Spartan League Cup.
He had grown up in Whitton, close to Twickenham.
From an early age, he had a deep passion for sport and played football for his school and county teams, showing talent and determination that would shape much of his life.
During his National Service, Jim represented the Army at football, touring Germany and North Africa.
His amateur playing career began in 1958 with Hounslow Town in the Athenian League. It was while there, he signed forms for West Ham United and, the following season, Brentford, but did not appear in either of their first teams.
Later in 1961, he returned to the amateur game with Slough Town and then Hounslow Town once again, where he won the Middlesex Senior Cup.
After a spell at Finchley, Jim joined Wealdstone for the 1966 season, that Wembley appearance being the undoubted highlight of his career.
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