JASON WHITE and JOHN EUSTACE recalled...

The Making of Jason White & John Eustace

Delroy was a talented footballer, a midfielder who dominated in my first ever team as a teacher at Firs Junior School, Birmingham, in 1974. He was so dominant that he was an automatic choice for the district team too. I guess he lost his way at secondary school, where I believe he was the recipient of some unpleasant peer treatment and his football career stalled.

Delroy in his Saltley District shirt...

His younger brother Jason displayed a beaming smile and at the age of eight won the school's standing long jump event against boys three years older than himself. He was a talented gymnast, a raw footballer at first but skilled by the age of eleven. He was intelligent too but also a total pain. Despite his inexperience and recent transfer from the infants' school, he pestered me daily to give him a chance in the ‘B’ team. This badgering became so intense that I was forced to include him in a squad of players to visit Timberley School on 20th September 1979. Unlike our school it had its own soccer pitch, whereas we had to train on a grit-littered playground. Timberley had its own long jump facilities too. We had a playground and mats to leap onto. This was the type of game in which I could assess the younger lads and fourteen of them had piled into just two cars for the after-school friendly match some three miles away.

The game ended in a 2-2 draw, but Jason had nagged at me for much of the duration of the game, constantly wanting to know if or when he would get a chance to substitute for one of the players. He was obviously bursting with eagerness, pace and energy, so when there were just a few minutes left I made the key replacement. He had never played on a full-sized pitch before and it was not long before he took possession of the ball. The scenario was of comic book proportions, as he raced goalwards with the ball. His speed exceeded his control but he broke clear of the defence, ignorant of the touchline advice ringing from the Firs contingent. It was maybe only when he was approaching the penalty-box that he looked up and saw Lee Walsh, who was our goalie, that confusion set in. He was going the wrong way… Fortunately Jason was bright enough to realise his mistake and he stuttered to a stop. Although puzzled, he had the presence of mind to turn and set off in the right direction, racing down the field until he was swamped by opponents and the chance was lost.

Jason, back left, enjoys 5-a-side success...

Jason Whyte (White), back row, 2nd left...
Great lad...

Jason, like his brother, was a district player at eleven, became a prolific goalscorer for me but then I didn't see him again until one day in Birmingham’s city centre. He was about sixteen years old and proud to tell me that Derby had taken him on as an apprentice. He didn’t make it there but managed a league career, including missing a sudden death penalty at Wembley for Scunthorpe, handing promotion to Blackpool in 1991, before eventually leaving these shores to study for a university degree and play football for Sengkang in Singapore. His name was Jason Whyte, wrongly spelt ‘White’ by the Football League. I saw him play for Rotherham and Cheltenham. He even featured on A Question of Sport's 'What Happened Next?' when out on loan from Derby, I think at Shepshed. 

The goalie? Lee Walsh, an avid Wolves fan as a kid, died after almost recovering from leukaemia when he was in his mid-teens. He was such a bright and pleasant lad, whose sad funeral I attended.

A family friend once asked me to help out with her son's Cubs team in the late eighties. There were only around twelve boys interested as we assembled for our first training session in Sutton Park. Those boys were not footballers who happened to be Cubs, but Cubs who felt like a kickabout now and again. Assessing the boys, there was no obvious goalie, just a couple of them seemed to show any natural ability to kick a ball correctly and it was plain that the team would be one of enthusiastic chasers.

John struck a ball well, though. He seemed quiet, even sullen at times and his keen mother brought him to each game over the ensuing two years. His parents ran a decent hotel in the Sutton Coldfield area and as the games were played, it was obvious that his abilities were blossoming. Goals from eighteen to twenty yards were not rare, he spotted players to pass to, his corners were well delivered and he was the feature player in my team. Unless his dad watched... Strangely, he was hesitant, even reticent when his father turned up, his dad bellowed negatively at John and I believe that eventually, his mother politely asked her husband to stay away.

During two years he barely spoke more than a few words to me. The lads unexpectedly won the area five-a-side competition and John was excellent throughout. Other players had improved beyond recognition and so I took them down to Aldershot to play against their under-11 team, as a farewell gesture. The Shots were unbeaten and hadn’t conceded a goal all season but we gave them a real fight, before tiring to a 5-1 defeat. The lads were fed and then watched the first team play against Cambridge, for whom ex-Shots striker Steve Claridge was starring.

I have not spoken to John Eustace since but he would find fame as a Coventry City player, of course, represent England at Under 21 level and skipper Watford, before joining Derby County..

I hope that something I said to Jason and John helped as they moved into the professional game. Probably not, though…