Irish football has lost one of its great characters with the sad passing of Eugene ‘Pooch’ Davis at age 70.
A butcher by trade, Davis was blessed with one of the great nicknames in the League of Ireland as well as a sharp eye for goal.
In an illustrious league career, he scored 130 goals, 23 of them in 1980-81 when he finished as the top marksman as Athlone Town won the title for the first time under Turlough O’Connor.
A proud son of Dun Laoghaire, ‘Pooch’ was part of the Athlone team that held mighty AC Milan scoreless at St Mel’s Park in the UEFA Cup in October 1975. Pooch recalled that visit in a 2020 interview with ‘The 42.’
‘A fella called Aidan Lee was the chairman at the time and Milan had sent somebody over to look at the hotels and the pitch and whatever.
‘This fella came over and Aidan brought him down to the ground. They got out of the car and looked around and he said to the chairman, “We’re not training here.”
‘Aidan said: “I know you’re not training here, yiz are playing here.”‘ In their Milan hotel for the return leg, Pooch bumped into movie star Omar Shariff, who was playing in a bridge tournament, and greeted him with the immortal line: ‘How’s it going, Omar?’
Milan, managed by Giovanni Trapattoni, won 3-0 but Pooch managed to bring home a treasured Milan jersey.
‘I was living in Blackrock at the time. I gave my (Milan) jersey to an Italian fella, he owned the (local) chipper.
‘I had promised him the jersey and after that, I was getting free chips for as long as I lived down there.’
Davis also played for Shamrock Rovers, St Pats, UCD, Bohemians and Bray Wanderers in a distinguished career. Rest in peace, Pooch.
