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the passing of a national legend indeed. two successive world cups qualifications will never happen again in my lifetime. a 0-0 at wembley to qualify for mexico 86 was an experience i will never forget.
rest easy billy
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RIP Billy Bingham. on 09:48 - Jun 11 with 1867 views
RIP Billy Bingham. on 08:35 - Jun 11 by komradkirk
the passing of a national legend indeed. two successive world cups qualifications will never happen again in my lifetime. a 0-0 at wembley to qualify for mexico 86 was an experience i will never forget.
rest easy billy
And if anyone says it's a fix, they can see Macca!
I had the great privelege of meeting and chatting with Billy at a football function about four or five years ago. I asked him about Alan McDonald and although his memory was certainly fading at the time the response was lovely, he smiled and said "Ah - my centre half" A wonderful moment to share with a truly great man. RIP
[Post edited 11 Jun 2022 10:38]
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RIP Billy Bingham. on 11:03 - Jun 11 with 1812 views
RIP Billy Bingham. on 09:48 - Jun 11 by CamberleyR
And if anyone says it's a fix, they can see Macca!
Great thing about that side was the great mix of both sides of the divide. People in the South of Ireland were genuinely rooting for Northern Ireland at both world cups. Martin o niell, pat Jennings and Gerry Armstrong all played Gaelic football at under age level for Thier counties . Not sure it would happen now. Alan Mac, a genuine legend!!
RIP Billy Loved the Northern Ireland teams of 82 & 86 they had some very good players back then
And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot
That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles
Brian Moore
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RIP Billy Bingham. on 15:10 - Jun 11 with 1695 views
The OP referred to BB's record as NI manager (incidentally 2 x British Championships as well as 2 x World Cup Final appearances).
But it should not be overlooked that he was also an excellent player, both club and country. For example, he played for Everton when they were English league champions in 1962/63.
And for Northern Ireland, he held the appearance record jointly with Danny Blanchflower for many years with 56 caps, at a time when they played far fewer games than today.
Above all, he also played for the NI team which got to the last 8 of the 1958 World Cup, playing alongside top quality players like Danny Blanchflower (twice English FOTY), Jimmy McIlroy (voted Burnley's greatest ever player), Harry Gregg (named as gk in the FIFA Team of the Tournament), Peter McParland (5 x goals in the finals from the wing) etc.
Had it not been for IFA incompetence, crippling injuries and a punishing schedule where they had to fit in an extra play-off game against Czechoslovakia (which itself went to extra time), they might have gone even futher, but exhaustion took over. Bingham played in all 5 games.
Great player, great manager, great man.
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RIP Billy Bingham. on 13:42 - Jun 13 with 1442 views
The OP referred to BB's record as NI manager (incidentally 2 x British Championships as well as 2 x World Cup Final appearances).
But it should not be overlooked that he was also an excellent player, both club and country. For example, he played for Everton when they were English league champions in 1962/63.
And for Northern Ireland, he held the appearance record jointly with Danny Blanchflower for many years with 56 caps, at a time when they played far fewer games than today.
Above all, he also played for the NI team which got to the last 8 of the 1958 World Cup, playing alongside top quality players like Danny Blanchflower (twice English FOTY), Jimmy McIlroy (voted Burnley's greatest ever player), Harry Gregg (named as gk in the FIFA Team of the Tournament), Peter McParland (5 x goals in the finals from the wing) etc.
Had it not been for IFA incompetence, crippling injuries and a punishing schedule where they had to fit in an extra play-off game against Czechoslovakia (which itself went to extra time), they might have gone even futher, but exhaustion took over. Bingham played in all 5 games.
Great player, great manager, great man.
Just to add that he also played in the FA Cup Final in 1959 for Luton, for whom he was the star.
RIP Billy.
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RIP Billy Bingham. on 14:21 - Jun 13 with 1397 views
I think the 82 squad had a bit more quality than the 86 one did.
Plus in 86 they had a really tough group - Brazil, Spain and an Algeria side that wasn't too shabby.
Agree with this, by 1986 the team was past its best, though it still performed creditably out in Mexico, including the great Pat Jennings effectively coming out of retirement to play, ending his career against the might Brazil on his 41st birthday!
But in truth, I think that Binghams team actually reached their peak not at Espana 82, but over the next year or two, most notably during their qualification campaign for the 1984 Euro's. Having been one of the teams drawn in a 5 team group, they were also unlucky to be drawn with West Germany.
Yet it was only "one of those games" in Tirana, where they drew 0-0 with Albania, which caused NI to miss out on clinching the sole qualification spot in the group.
As it was, they actually finished level on points with W.Germany at the top, but missed out on GD. Yet in doing so, they actually beat WG twice, making NI the first team ever to have beaten them both home and away in any competitive qualifier, World Cup or Euros, never mind in the same series.
I was at Windsor that rainy night when NI won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Ian Stewart, late of this parish. Stewart was absolutely outstanding that evening, tormenting the German Right Back, the imperious Manny Kaltz - I'm sure Kaltz never had a harder game than that one. And the goal itself was a good one too, not some scramble or fluke:
As for the return a year later in Hamburg, Stewart was again instrumental in the 1-0 victory, since it was his shot after a wonderful dribble from the half way line, which led indirectly to Whiteside's winner:
I think I'm right in saying Bayern Munich wanted to sign Stewart after that, though it didn't come about for some reason and sadly he never really fulfilled his enormous early potential from that time.
Meanwhile, the irony was that in the event of a tie on points at the top of a group, the deciding factor was subsequently changed from Goal Difference to head-to-head.
Anyhow, those two games were a trubute to Bingham's ability to set up his teams tactically, and motivate them sufficiently, to get a result, even when up against teams which were much superior on paper.
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RIP Billy Bingham. on 18:11 - Jun 13 with 1303 views
If i remember correctly Ian Stewart lacked a bit of pace and was not really a team player,he just didnt get involved enough in the game.He certainly had talent though.Nice to see that clip of Macca i went to that game and remember that England only really started playing when the crowd started singing 'its a fix,its a fix' i had my suspicions but was very at pleased for them as they were going through a lot of misery at the time.
[Post edited 13 Jun 2022 18:21]
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RIP Billy Bingham. on 18:45 - Jun 13 with 1263 views
If i remember correctly Ian Stewart lacked a bit of pace and was not really a team player,he just didnt get involved enough in the game.He certainly had talent though.Nice to see that clip of Macca i went to that game and remember that England only really started playing when the crowd started singing 'its a fix,its a fix' i had my suspicions but was very at pleased for them as they were going through a lot of misery at the time.
[Post edited 13 Jun 2022 18:21]
Interesting about Stewart being "not really a team player" - can't say I remember him that way and Bingham certainly never tolerated that sort of individual, for him, the collective was everything. I always thought of Stewart as an old-style tricky winger, but you may be right.
As for the game at Wembley in1985, I too was there that night and if it was a "fix", then nobody told Glenn Hoddle, since I distinctly remember him hitting one of his specials, which had "GOAL!" written all over it, only for Big Pat to stretch full length and pull off a blinding save:
That was in the first half, btw.
P.S. As well as Macca gaining his second cap for NI, Terry Fenwick appeared for England that night, while Ian Stewart started for NI, though he'd gone to Newcastle by then.
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