Jimmy Mcilroy
Composed Burnley midfielder who was also the mainstay of the Northern Ireland side in its heyday
JIMMY MCILROY, the former Burnley and Northern Ireland footballer who has died aged 86, was fundamental to the unexpected successes of both teams in the late Fifties and early Sixties; for Sir Bobby Charlton he was “one of the most fantastic midfield players I’ve ever seen”.
Mcilroy joined Burnley at 18 in 1950, and over the next 13 years would play almost 500 times for them. In an era before television, when there was more parity in clubs’ incomes, small clubs such as Burnley – who had helped found the Football League – could compete with those in big cities, such as Manchester United.
Aided by the blossoming of young players such as Ray Pointer and John Connelly, and by the shrewd management of the chairman (and local butcher) Bob Lord and manager Harry Potts, Mcilroy regularly made Burnley top-flight title contenders as the 1960s dawned. Forging a productive partnership with the half-back Jimmy Adamson, and scoring many a goal himself, Mcilroy was noted for his deft control when under pressure and his ability to fashion the perfect pass.
In 1960 Burnley won the championship from Wolves by a point on the last day – the first time they had topped the table that season, and their first title since 1921. The year after, they reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup, and in 1962 were Double runners-up. They lost out in the league to Alf Ramsey’s Ipswich, and went down to Spurs at Wembley. Mcilroy, who had also come second in the Footballer of the Year vote, thought the atmosphere there flat, and the match among the great disappointments of his career.
He was often offered the chance to move to bigger clubs, even turning down Matt Busby shortly before the Munich air crash. On the morning of the Cup Final he was approached by the manager of Italian club Sampdoria, as he recalled: “He promised me all sorts – a villa overlooking the Mediterranean, an international school for my children, wages way beyond what I was getting in England. But when I went back to the hotel and told my wife she said to me, ‘What would we want to leave Burnley for?’”
James Mcilroy was born at Lambeg, outside Belfast, on October 25 1931. He was the eldest – but the only boy – of six children. His father and uncle had both played football for clubs in Ulster.
He grew up in some poverty, rarely saw a football, and learnt to play with a tennis ball. The family house sat at the end of its row, and he would practise alone for hours against the side wall.
He left technical college at 14 and became a bricklayer. At 18, he signed for Glentoran, where he had played with Billy Bingham in the youth team. His ability was such, however, that after only half a season he had drawn the attention of English clubs including Tottenham.
Walking back late from watching a boxing match in Belfast one night, he was met by one of his sisters on a bicycle. She thrust it at him and told him to get back to the house – leaving her to walk home, he remembered – as there were some men there who wanted his signature. Burnley acquired him for £7,000, although he admitted years later that his agreement to the deal was actually illegal since it had been given after midnight, and therefore on a Sunday.
He won his first international cap at 20 and went on to represent Northern Ireland 55 times over the next 15 years. With Danny Blanchflower, he was the mainstay of the side in its greatest era, the highlight of which was its qualification for the 1958 World Cup. During the tournament, held in Sweden, they surprised many by reaching the quarter-finals, where they succumbed to France.
There was similar astonishment five years later amongst Burnley fans when, against Mcilroy’s wishes, he was sold by Lord, for motives never fully explained, to Stoke. The fee was a modest £25,000, and, while Mcilroy was regarded as ageing at 32, the Potters, who were in Division Two, were making good use of other veterans such as Dennis Viollet and the evergreen Stanley Matthews, then 48.
The exceptional winter had devastated the fixtures programme, and when Mcilroy joined in March the season still had half to run. He played a major part in their eventual promotion as champions and helped them to reach the League Cup Final the following year, though they lost 4-3 to Leicester.
In 1965, after 116 matches for Stoke, he moved to Oldham, then mired at the foot of the Third Division. The club’s chairman Ken Bates soon made him manager, but Mcilroy quickly regretted accepting, feeling frustrated at being unable to influence the game sufficiently from the dug-out. Indeed, he went on to register as a player for the team and picked himself for more than 40 matches before resigning at the start of the 1968-69 season.
He subsequently had a brief spell in charge at Bolton in succession to Nat Lofthouse, but quit when told by the board to sell players. Although as composed off the pitch as he was on it, Mcilroy would never be dictated to.
During the Sixties, he and his wife Barbara had run a menswear shop in Burnley, but thereafter he worked chiefly for the local newspaper, continuing to live in the town and regularly attending home matches.
In the 1990s, a stand at Turf Moor was named for him, and in 2011 he chose to receive the MBE he had been awarded in front of the supporters there. He was elected to the Football League Hall of Fame in 2014.
His wife predeceased him and he is survived by their son and daughter.
Jimmy Mcilroy, born October 25 1931, died August 20 2018