Jimmy McIlroy, an elegant figure
It was sad indeed to learn of the death of an old and valued friend in Jimmy McIlroy. I always coupled him with two distinctly different team-mates: at Burnley, Jimmy Adamson, a tall lean, shrewdly effective wing-half, centre-half, captain and coach, and with Northern Ireland his fellow international Danny Blanchflower.
Like Blanchflower he was a fluent and inspirational figure, and between them they did so much to inspire the progress of a Northern Ireland team which knocked Italy out of the 1958 World Cup qualifiers and thus participated against all odds in the tournament in Sweden.
Who knows how much further they might have gone had not Danny’s brother Jackie, such a resourceful centre-half, not been so shockingly injured in the appalling Munich air crash of the Manchester United team that February.
Elegance and poise were the essence of McIlroy’s game and Matt Busby would have loved to have had him at Manchester United, where he would certainly have fitted in. Yet he stayed loyal to the far less celebrated Burnley, helping them to win a Championship title.
His ball control was impeccable, his use of the ball effective to a degree, and when Burnley surprisingly but deservedly won that 1960 championship, McIlroy and Adamson complemented one another perfectly.
It used to be something of a minor tradition that when Burnley were in town to play a London club, the two of them would come round for coffee at the house I then had in Notting Hill Gate. After which we would repair to the hotel where their team always stayed opposite South Kensington station, have lunch then take the coach to whatever London club they were playing.