Wednesday, 29 June 2022 | 17.6°C Belfast

Subscribe
- My Account
- Log Out

News [1]
Opinion [2]
Business [3]
Sport [4]
Life [5]
Entertainment [7]
Travel [8]
Sunday Life [9]

Menu Sections

Belfasttelegraph

News [1]
Opinion [2]
Business [3]
Sport [4]
Life [5]
Entertainment [7]
Travel [8]
Sunday Life [9]

Menu Sections

Close

Premium

No one will come near to what Billy Bingham achieved for our wee country

Gerry Armstrong

World Cup legends Gerry Armstrong and Billy Bingham together in 2006. Credit: William Cherry/Presseye

WILLIAM CHERRY/PRESSEYE

World Cup legends Gerry Armstrong and Billy Bingham together in 2006. Credit: William Cherry/Presseye

June 10 2022 08:00 PM

There will never be another Billy Bingham. He was undoubtedly our most successful manager and no one will ever come near to what he achieved for our country.

My goodness, we qualified for two World Cups, back-to-back … we won the British Championship outright in 1980 and 1984 — unbelievable.

We beat Germany home and away ... no team does that, especially not our wee country.

With all due respect, we, as a country, are now struggling to beat the likes of Cyprus, Kosovo and teams like that.

But back in Billy’s days, we blew them all out of the water — and he takes most of the credit.

Not only had Billy wonderful man-management skills, but he was astute; he knew our strengths and he knew our weaknesses.

He always played to our strengths. He always briefed us on the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses. That was a skill in itself, back in those days.

Billy was a smart wee man, very clever. We had a six-year spell between 1980 and 1986, which went down in the football fabric of our country.

Obviously, when you talk about Billy, the conversation immediately reverts to the night during the 1982 World Cup when we beat Spain in their own backyard.

That result, in the stifling heat in Valencia, remains one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament.

Billy will always be remembered for that result — and why not? It was fabulous. I recall Billy and Martin O’Neill embracing after the final whistle and Martin suggested we will probably go on and win the World Cup now! I enjoyed every single minute of that 1982 World Cup experience, and I’m taking about the qualifying games before we even got to Spain.

We lost in Sweden, but we beat them in Belfast; we lost in Portugal, but beat them at Windsor Park. We finished the qualifiers by beating Israel in front of a packed house at Windsor . . . we had so many highs it was unreal.

Once we got there (to Spain) Billy made big changes. He unearthed a young Norman Whiteside at 17 years of age, which was unheard of going into such an environment.

Even though I was scoring goals, he moved me to become a right-sided midfielder to support Jimmy Nicholl.

That was a stroke of genius on Billy’s part. He also brought in John McClelland at the back instead of John O’Neill — another stroke of genius.

People may have raised their eyebrows at some of the things Billy did, but you never questioned him because he always got it right.

We were eventually beaten by France at the quarter-final stage. But Martin O’Neill had a goal disallowed on that occasion. Had it been allowed to stand, we could well have faced German in the semi-final.

A few months later, we went on to beat Germany home and away in the European Championships qualifiers.

Billy then masterminded another World Cup run in 1986 when we held England to a scoreless draw at Wembley to guarantee our place in Mexico.

But we just couldn’t repeat the heroics of four years previous.

The tributes have been pouring in for Billy and he deserves every one — he was a top man. We’ll never find anyone as good as Billy again.

He hadn’t been in good health in recent times, but he had already left an indelible mark on the history of our wee country.

More On National Stadium at Windsor Park

Linfield keen on reunion with striker Eetu Vertainen as St Johnstone open to second loan spell

Irish FA remaining tight-lipped on future of Northern Ireland boss Ian Baraclough

Premium

Gareth McAuley Opinion Northern Ireland's best chance to qualify for Euro 2024 was the Nations League... so why wasn’t it made a priority?

Premium

No one will come near to what Billy Bingham achieved for our wee country

Daily Headlines & Evening Telegraph Newsletter

Related topics

More On National Stadium at Windsor Park

Linfield keen on reunion with striker Eetu Vertainen as St Johnstone open to second loan spell

Irish FA remaining tight-lipped on future of Northern Ireland boss Ian Baraclough

Gareth McAuley Opinion Northern Ireland's best chance to qualify for Euro 2024 was the Nations League... so why wasn’t it made a priority?

Liam Beckett Opinion Northern Ireland boss Ian Baraclough must respect strength of feeling among the Green and White Army

Linfield to open Danske Bank Premiership title defence against Portadown as Cliftonville face tricky trip to Coleraine

Most Read

Top Videos

Watch: Armagh and Galway players brawl during All Ireland Quarter Final

Watch: Westlife hold private concert at Irish fan's house

Video: UDA flags erected in Newtownards

Latest Football

Latest