Billy Bingham
Everton player who as an astute manager led Northern Ireland to a famous victory against Spain
BILLY BINGHAM, who has died aged 90, was a footballer who won the League Championship with Everton and reached the World Cup quarter-finals with Northern Ireland; he went on to become his country’s most successful manager, leading the national side to the 1982 World Cup in Spain, where they secured a memorable victory over the hosts.
Tactically astute and a deft man-manager, he had taken charge of Northern Ireland for the second time in March 1980. He struck gold straight away, winning the Home Nations Championship, and followed it up with World Cup qualification victories against Sweden, Portugal and Israel.
His squad in Spain was composed of journeymen for the most part, with the notable exceptions of Pat Jennings, one of the world’s best goalkeepers, the captain Martin O’neill and the thrilling youngster Norman Whiteside. But they played out of their skins.
They drew against Honduras and Yugoslavia, then took on the tournament hosts on a sultry evening in Valencia. Gerry Armstrong lashed in a 49th-minute winner after the Spanish goalkeeper, Luis Arconada, could only push out Billy Hamilton’s cross.
Though they went a man down when Mal Donaghy was sent off on the hour, they clung on in the heat to finish top of their group. The victory remains one of the great World Cup upsets, and Bingham’s side advanced to the quarter-final group stage. There, they drew with Austria but lost to France and were knocked out, going home none the less to an ecstatic welcome.
“Bingy had the Midas touch,” said Armstrong, “something special which brought the best out of the players.”
William Laurence Bingham was born in east Belfast on August 5 1931 into a workingclass Protestant family. His father worked in the shipyards, and Billy followed in his footsteps, initially as a marker boy – drawing chalk lines on steel plates to mark out where they should be cut – before becoming an apprentice electrician.
At first a wiry centre-forward, he switched to the right wing. He played for a youth team, Orangefield Star, which was managed by Selina Blanchflower, mother of Danny and Jackie, whom Billy would later join in the national side.
He played for Northern Ireland Schoolboys, but his spare frame needed filling out, and he began weight-training with Buster Mcshane, a bodybuilder who would later help Mary Peters to win pentathlon gold at the 1972 Olympics.
Bingham signed for Glentoran, making his debut in March 1949, and the following season they finished second in the Irish League. Bingham had been attracting attention from England, and he joined Sunderland for a fee of £8,000, continuing his electrician’s apprenticeship in a Wearside shipyard.
He gradually established himself as a first-team regular throughout the decade as Sunderland twice reached the FA Cup semi-finals, but in 1958 they were relegated. Having fallen out with the manager Alan Brown, Bingham was sold to Luton Town, again for £8,000.
Winning his first senior cap aged 19, Bingham went with Northern Ireland to the 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden, where they reached the quarter-finals, losing to France. Bingham took the opportunity to have a good look at the management style of Peter Doherty, who fostered a great team spirit and enthusiastically drilled the players in set-pieces.
Back in England, Bingham scored for Luton in the FA Cup semi-final against Norwich City, but the Hatters lost at Wembley to Nottingham Forest. In 1959-60 he was the club’s top scorer with 16 goals,
but could not prevent relegation to the Second Division.
His pace and his eye for goal attracted bigger clubs, and in October 1960 he joined Everton for a fee of £15,000. The following year Harry Catterick took over as manager, and Everton won the League title in 1963. But by then Bingham had the new signing Alex Scott as a rival for the outside-right slot, and he joined Port Vale, having scored 26 goals in 98 games for the Blues.
Bingham retired after breaking his leg and joined Fourth Division Southport as coach. He became manager after a few months and began implementing the lessons learnt from Mcshane, sending his players up and down the sand dunes and putting them through army assault courses.
He would later take his gruelling regimes with him into the Northern Ireland set-up: at one training camp, in Brighton, he sent the squad on runs with an Ethiopian marathon runner studying at the university there. He imposed curfews and persuaded the players to cut back on the beer.
In 1967 he led Southport to their first ever League promotion. Then, having taken them to a solid 13th place in the Third Division in 1968, he departed to take charge of Northern Ireland.
The job of an international manager is effectively part-time, and Bingham felt free to take the reins at Plymouth Argyle, though he was unable to prevent relegation from the Second Division. He next joined Linfield, leading them to the Irish League title in 1971.
He quit the Northern Ireland job that year and became manager of Greece, leaving after failing to get them to the 1974 World Cup.
In May 1975 he returned to Goodison Park as Everton manager. He embarked on a clear-out of the remnants of what had been a golden generation, getting rid of Howard Kendall, Colin Harvey and Joe Royle – who would all later return to manage the club – and signing Bob Latchford and Martin Dobson.
Bingham maintained the Everton tradition of attractive, attacking football, and in 1975 they were top of the table at the beginning of April but fell away to finish fourth. He was sacked in January 1977 following a run of eight games without a win; his subsequent club career was restricted to short spells with PAOK in Greece, Mansfield Town, and the Saudi Arabian side Al-nassr, whom he led to victory in the Kings Cup.
In 1980 he began his second spell in charge of Northern Ireland. Following their Spanish adventure he led them to triumph in the last Home Championship, in 1984, and to the 1986 World Cup after they finished second in their qualification group behind England.
They faced an uphill task in Mexico, however, and lost to Brazil and Spain, departing with only a draw against Algeria to their name.
After the retirements of Jennings, O’neill and Whiteside, the team’s fortunes fell away. They failed to qualify for any more major tournaments under Bingham and he departed in 1993. He was later director of football at Blackpool and a scout for Burnley. He was appointed MBE in 1981.
Billy Bingham – who was diagnosed with dementia in 2006 – married, first, Eunice Oliver, who he met at a dance hall in Sunderland. They divorced, and he married Rebecca Van Strang, who owned a jeweller’s shop in Southport; she was on the board at Blackpool FC when he was the club’s director of football, but they later divorced.
He is survived by his daughter and son from his first marriage.