South Yorkshire Times, May 3rd, 1959
President – Roving Talent Scout
Spots Winner For Denaby At Cortonwood
Denaby United supporters and officials should give club president Andrew been “talent scout” Sam Peck a big pat on the back.
From it was Sam (53), club president for the past 10 years who discovered outside right Brian Smith, the man who shares a great deal of the credit for Denaby’s stupendous series of victories in the past few weeks.
A former Cortonwood player Brian (21), a miner at Cortonwood Colliery, was “spotted” by Sam during the Barnsley Association league game. Two weeks later, Sam, accompanied by United secretary manager Arthur Roberts, went to watch Brian play in Cortonwood’s fixture with Jump United. They were so impressed by his performance that he was signed almost immediately.
Dream Debut.
The move was a brainwave on the part of the two officials, Brian, who was included in the team only a week later, made a debut every player dreams of when he scored a winning goal in the first minute of the game.
He has now played in eight matches and has five goals to his credit. A swift, tricky wingman, he has laid on twice as many goals for his fellow attackers.
Smith’s advent saw a change in the Denaby game, who had only won two of the first 21 matches of the season. Seven out of their last 12 matches have been victories and as Smith is the only new player, his inclusion must be one of the reasons for Denaby’s sudden transformation.
“I knew he was a winner when I first saw him,” said Mr Peck, who, incidentally is used to “roving” (he’s a commercial traveller with a Conisbrough firm). “I knew, given a chance, that he Would prove me right. And he has done so. He’s played like a gem in every match.”
Out of the blue goal.
It was Brian who helped United to coast to their best victory of the season, against Scunthorpe United reserves.
He scored an “out of the blue” goal in the 22nd minute after Denaby had been suffering from almost constant pressure by the home team. His second came 17 minutes later.