added a Welsh Cup winners medal to his collection four months later. However the effects of Parkinson's disease began to reduce his effectiveness on the pitch, and he dropped into the Fourth Division with Hartlepool United in November 1983. During the 1984–85 season he spent a brief time as player-manager of Cyprus club Pezoporikos and later played for Northern League club Ashington. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in November 1984. His life after football was difficult, as he had to deal with the effects of Parkinson's, the loss of his business, and the breakdown of his 15-year marriage. He remained reliant on charity to fund his medical expenses, and was forced to sell his medal collection and caps in 1993. Club career Ray Kennedy was born on 28 July 1951 in Seaton Delaval, a former pit village in Northumberland, to Martin and Veronica Kennedy, a coal miner and housewife respectively. He was the eldest of four children: Trevor, Michael, and Janet. He was spotted playing schoolboy football by a scout at Port Vale, and began training at Vale Park after manager Stanley Matthews came to the Kennedy home to persuade him to sign schoolboy forms at the club. However at the age of sixteen Matthews felt Kennedy was "too slow to be a footballer". Kennedy was considered to be too big and clumsy to be a professional, and groundskeeper Dennis Dawson said he was the only man at the club to see any potential in the youngster. He was released by the club after being told that he would never make it as a professional. Kennedy returned to his native north-east in March 1967 and started working in a sweet factory whilst playing as an amateur for New Hartley Juniors, where he built a successful attacking partnership with former England schoolboy international Ian Watts. The pair scored 142 goals between them, and helped the club to win the East Northumberland Junior League, the Northumberland FA Junior Cup, the East Northumberland Junior League Cup, the North East Youth Challenge Cup, the East Northumberland Junior League Charlton Trophy, the Tynemouth Junior League Challenge Cup and the Magpie Trophy. Arsenal Kennedy was spotted by Arsenal playing for New Hartley Juniors, and though the scouts had initially gone to the game to watch his striker partner Watts, Kennedy had impressed enough to win an apprentice contract with Arsenal in May 1968. He then