Hundreds turned up at St James Church at the weekend to pay their final respects to late Somerset Trojans defender Rudy Minors.The iconic Trojans skipper, who died April 12 at age 69 following a long bout with illness, was laid to rest following a moving home going service.Minors is perhaps best remembered for leading Trojans’ all-conquering squad that won the coveted triple crown championship (League, Friendship Trophy and FA Cup) for three consecutive seasons in the late 1960s to earn the distinguished title of ‘Silver City’.“Rudy was a good leader and a guy who fought for his players and supported them,” said former team-mate Kenny Cann, who carried his late friend to his final resting place. “Rudy was a gem and Bermuda has lost a gem.“Rudy and I were best friends and go back a long way. He was definitely a gentleman and encourager and sometimes I think he had more confidence in me then I had in myself.”Cann, who now resides in the United States, said Minors was one of the finest players of his era.“Rudy was a very sound player period and I think he was one of the first players to overlap,” he added. “The overlapping game we have today with the fullbacks ... Rudy was doing that in the 1960s and we didn’t have any other fullbacks doing that.”Cann said he and Minors had good chemistry working in tandem at the heart of Trojans’ defence.“Rudy and I had a good understanding and if people were attacking down his side he would always guide them in to me, we just had that type of understanding,” he added. “Instead of letting the winger go down the line he would force them to come through the middle and I always knew when he was going to do that, so we were very successful with that.”Cann said another one of Minors’ trademarks was his exceptional long throws.“Rudy wasn’t a big guy, but he could throw the ball from the halfway line to the penalty box,” he said. “Usually he threw it to Baldy (Lionel Smith) who was one of our tallest players that was very good in heading. He either threw it to Baldy or Randy Horton who were the big guys in the middle.”Cann attributes Trojans’ triple crown success of the 60s to a harmonious group of talented players who were keen to play as a unit.“We were a team and everybody was very close,” he said. “We were a very attacking team and we had people like Rudy Smith in the midfield who would run all day.“The first year we were successful we only played with three defenders and if we needed a fourth person to cover Rudy (Smith) was always there. We had midfield players who would always drift back and help out.“We also had skilful players like Reggie Tucker and Bernard Brangman. These guys could dribble and take men on at will and then we had forceful strikers like Baldy and Randy Horton.”