An interview with Terry Curran

Terry salutes the Sheffield Wednesday fans after scoring at Hillsborough

I recently managed to catch up briefly with Terry Curran, the former attacking midfielder and winger.
His career started in 1973 with Doncaster Rovers and ended in 1987 at Chesterfield. In that time he also played for Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough, Bury, Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday, Atviaberg and Sheffield United.
He left The Blades to join Everton and ended his career after playing for Huddersfield Town, Panionios, Hull City, Sunderland, Grantham Town, Grimsby and finaly Chesterfield.

Hello Terry, thank you for agreeing to take part in an interview for me. What was Brian Clough like as a manager? He certainly was one of the true characters of the game!

Brian certainly had all of the attributes to be the great manager that he was.

Terry (in lighter coloured shirt) playing at
Stamford Bridge against Chelsea

You left Southampton having just reached the League Cup Final to join Sheffield Wednesday who were two divisions below them in Division Three. What did Jack Charlton (the manager of Sheffield Wednesday at the time) say to convince you to drop two divisions to the Third?

I didn’t need any convincing by Jack Charlton to join Sheffield Wednesday. I am a Sheffield Wednesday supporter and wanted to take them out of the Third Division and back to the First.

You’re probably best remembered for your time at Sheffield Wednesday. What is your favourite memory of your time at Hillsborough?

I was playing well at Nottingham Forest but then I sustained a serious knee ligament injury and then joined Wednesday. My best memory has to be when we beat Sheffield United at Hillsborough 4-0.

You played briefly for two foreign clubs in your career (Atviaberg of Sweden and Panionios of Greece). How did these moves come about?

The move to Atviaborg came about as Jack Charlton asked me to go to Sweden to help the team out and I said that I would.

Terry celebrates another one of his goals
with his adoring fans

Towards the end of your career you joined Everton, who went on to a very successful time, winning the league, appearing in three successive FA Cup Finals and winning the European Cup Winners Cup. What are your memories of your time there?

Everton weren’t playing very well when I joined them. In fact, they were second bottom of the league and having a bad time. I helped to turn Everton around but then I pulled my thigh muscle which kept me out for seven months. They then went on to be very successful.

You never managed a club in the Football League when your playing career was finally over. Why was that?

I didn’t become a manager as I was disillusioned with football and wanted some freedom. I bought a transport cafe and that was the route that I took.

You were managed by some great managers in your career, Lawrie McMenemy at Southampton, Brian Clough at Forest, Howard Kendall at Everton and Jack Charlton at Sheffield Wednesday. Who in your opinion was the best of that list?

Brian Clough was the best manager that I played for. The reason is that he was’t afraid of the opposition and played football like the way I wanted to play, hence The Beautiful Game!

Who was the best team that you played in?

Derby County was the best team that I played at, they had some great players in that team. (Terry played for Derby between 1977 and 1978, playing 26 times and scoring twice in his time at the Baseball Ground).
We had the likes of Charlie George, Colin Todd, Roy Mc Farland, David Nish, Don Masson, Bruce Rioch, Gerry Daley and Gordon Hill.

I’d like to thank Terry again for giving me some of his time to answer my questions for this blog. I have asked several former players and Terry very kindly helped me out by providing an interview.

If you’d like to read more about Terry’s career, then you can find his autobiography, ‘Regrets of a Football Maverick’ on www.amazon.co.uk.