Bryan Conlon, the classic big bustling centre forward - and Shildon lad, still better - has died, aged 57.

Though his 251 Football League appearances were with clubs all over the country - Millwall, Norwich, Blackburn Rovers, Crewe and Cambridge among them - Bryan never strayed far from his roots.

He married a Shildon girl at the parish church - 12 o'clock service, 3.15 kick-off against Bradford City - and his funeral will be there next Tuesday.

Ever genial, more side on a size five caser, he would also engage in an occasional hand of dominoes with the Backtrack column. Now it can be said, Bryan usually won.

He'd begun on Newcastle United's books, taken to Darlington by chief scout Jack Watson - another of Shildon's finest - and pitched straight into the reserves.

"We'd not registered him in time, so he played under the name of an airman at Middleton St George who was on the books," Jack confesses.

Bryan hit 27 goals in 74 League appearances for the Quakers, though he'd retired with a pulled muscle after 53 minutes of the other big match on his wedding day - September 25, 1965.

Eric Johnstone, George McGeachie and the little remembered South Shields lad Norman Cardew scored in the Quakers' 3-0 win; Bryan had been replaced by his close friend Trevor Atkinson, from Coundon, who was just 49 when he died in 1992.

From Millwall he'd gone to Norwich City, where former Darlington manager Lol Morgan was in charge.

His Football League career ended at Hartlepool - three goals in 41 appearances - before a belated debut for Shildon on the first day of the 1974-75 season, when "amateur" status had finally been abolished.

Feethams legends John Peverall and Lance Robson were also in Shildon's side against Willington that day. The Northern League's millennium history recorded it beneath the nifty headline "Pro's, and Conlon."

"He was a very good footballer who would always give you 101 per cent on the field," says Jack Watson.

"If he'd been playing today he'd have been worth quite a lot of money.

"All anyone talks about is the need for a big, goal scoring centre forward. Bryan would have been ideal."

Bryan died on Wednesday after a long illness. His funeral is at 10.50am on Tuesday, followed very likely by a drink and a game of dominoes in the Fox.