IT WAS standing room only at St Luke’s Church in Knowsley Road on Monday when family, friends and fans paid their last respects to a sporting hero on the rugby league circuit.

Earlier, a minute’s silence had been observed at the Saints versus Wigan under-21 game on Saturday for Johnny Fishwick, of Dunriding Lane, a superb scrum-half, who died in Whiston Hospital after being in Eccleston Court Home for several months.

He leaves his wife Marion, children Lesley, John and Carole and six grandchildren.

Born in West Street, Toll Bar, in 1932, Johnny attended Ravenhead Infants and Grange Park schools.

It was then that Johnny met another oval-ball starlet in Bob Dagnall, and they became ‘joined at the hip’ until ‘Daggy’ passed away in 1999.

The dynamic duo joined Rochdale Hornets from Vine Tavern in 1956 before Bob left for Saints in 1960, while Johnny stayed to make his mark at the Athletic Grounds.

This included starring in a tour trial at Headingley in 1958, when he was unlucky not to get the nod for the trip to Australia, in the face of competition from Alex Murphy and Frank Pitchford.

In that same year pocket battleship Fishwick, Dagnall and other names with a familiar ring such as George Parsons, John Chisnall and Teddy Cahill were in the Hornets side which was narrowly defeated in the Challenge Cup semi-final by a Wigan squad captained by Eric Ashton.

Gentleman Johnny also scored one of Hornet’s two tries against Australia in 1959 and – eventually appointed captain – made a total of 286 appearances and touched down 47 times for the club before taking a well-earned benefit in 1967.

The Dagnall-Fishwick rugby league odyssey then rolled on at amateur level, with the development of youngsters at Thatto Heath and Portico Panthers, while Bob had games with Pilks and West Park, and Johnny was assistant coach to Eric Ashton and Kel Coslett at Knowsley Road.

Bernard Dwyer, Harry Pinner, Graham Liptrot, Neil Holding, Paul Loughlin and many others were some of the endless talent to benefit from the coaching expertise of Bob and Johnny while, as skilled craftsmen joiners, they also launched a building company.

Away from the demands of rugby and business the enterprising couple liked nothing better than a noggin or two as members of rugby league ‘debating societies’ at the Sprayhurst and Greenalls social clubs.

It was at the latter that glasses were raised to ‘absent friends’ on Monday.

Knowing them as countless folk did, I couldn’t help thinking that, when Bob and Fishwick were reunited at the Pearly Gates, Dagnall’s greeting in that rich Thatto Heath brogue might well have been – “Nah, Johnny ar tha gooin on owd son!”