Spain 1982
Sunday 8th June 2014 and the BBC are running the Spain v Northern Ireland game again. It’s 32 years ago and we’ve all seen the footage many times but it’s still hard to believe that we really did it. John Motson’s commentary.......... “Arconada – Armstrong...!” The ball hits the back of the host side’s net and we are on our way to the second phase.
Northern Ireland qualified for Spain 1982 having finished 2nd in Group 6 to Scotland. It was a group that contained Sweden, Portugal and Israel. On 18th November 1981 a solitary goal from Gerry Armstrong was enough to see us on our way to Spain.
The Glentoran Connections:
As in 1958, Northern Ireland were managed by a ‘Glenman’. Billy Bingham’s playing career was covered in part 2 of this series but as a manager he first took on the Northern Ireland job in 1967 following a spell in charge of Southport. His first spell in charge of the national team lasted until 1971. At national level he also managed Greece from 1971-71 whilst at club level he took charge of Plymouth Argyle, Linfield, Everton, PAOK Salonica & Mansfield Town. He returned to manage Northern Ireland in 1980 (until 1993) and qualified for both the 82 & 86 World Cups.
When the 22 man squad was announced there were 5 players in the Northern Ireland squad who had connections with Glentoran; 4 of them as players.
Tommy Cassidy had started his career with the Glens making his debut in the 1968-69 season and scoring his first senior goal against Distillery at the Oval in the City Cup on 13th May 1969. He made 14 appearances for the Glens (8 goals) before signing for Newcastle Utd in 1970. The highlight of his decade at St. James’s Park was an FA Cup final appearance in 1974. By the time we were heading to Spain, Tommy Cassidy was turning out for Burnley. He ended his playing days with Apoel in Cyprus where he won the Cup and Super Cup. He then managed Apoel, winning the Cypriot title before returning to England. He managed Gateshead before returning to East Belfast to manage Glentoran in 1994. Despite winning the Gold Cup (94) and Irish Cup (96) Cassidy resigned in November 1997 to be replaced by Roy Coyle. Tommy Cassidy then managed Ards and Sligo Rovers before going back across to take over at Workington (2001-07).
Jim Cleary joined the Glens from Portadown in the summer of 1980 and in 9 seasons at the Oval he made 413 appearances and scored 143 goals. In Cleary’s first season at the Oval, Glentoran were crowned champions after going through the league campaign undefeated. Jim Cleary won just one more league title but did lift the Irish Cup on 6 occasions and a host of others too including the Ulster Cup, Gold Cup, League Cup, Co Antrim Shield, Budweiser Cup & Co Antrim Centenary Chalice.
Although he didn’t get any playing time in Spain, Cleary did win 6 caps in total.
v Scotland 28-04-1982 in Belfast 1-1
v Wales 27-05-1982 in Wrexham 3-0 (L)
v Wales 31-05-1983 in Belfast 0-1 (L)
v Turkey 12-10-1983 in Ankara 1-0 (L)
v Israel 16-10-1984 in Belfast 3-0 (W)
Johnny Jameson also signed for Glentoran prior to the commencement of the 1980-81 season. He’d began his career at Bangor before moving to Huddersfield Town and then back to Linfield. Between 1980 and 1994, ‘The Flying Angel’ made 498 appearances for the Glens; a head injury denying him the opportunity to reach the 500 milestone. He scored 124 goals for the Glens, including both in the 1983 Irish Cup final replay against Linfield at the Oval. Johnny Jameson won the ‘double’ with both Linfield and Glentoran and won the Irish Cup 6 times. For the final game in Spain 82 (v France) Jameson turned down the opportunity to be in the squad for the game as it was being played on a Sunday. Did he later regret the decision? “Not at all. I felt then, as I do now, that as a Christian it wasn’t right for me to take part in that game. Other Christians participating in sport, such as Jonathon Edwards, don’t have a problem with competing on a Sunday and I wouldn’t be critical of them for making that choice. I just didn’t think it was appropriate for me. After Spain’82 a lot of people wanted to know more about the reasons for my decision and therefore a lot of opportunities arose to share my beliefs.”
The two other players in the 1982 squad with Glentoran connections were George Dunlop who had begun his career at Glentoran before moving to Linfield and David McCreery. McCreery’s brothers, Rab and Ron, both played for Glentoran.
First Phase
Group 5
17th June 1982 Yugoslavia 0-0 Northern Ireland
21st June 1982 Honduras 1-1 Northern Ireland (Armstrong)
25th June 1982 Spain 0-1 Northern Ireland (Armstrong)
Northern Ireland qualified as group winners.
Second Phase
Group D
1st July 1982 Austria 2-2 Northern Ireland (Hamilton 2)
4th July 1982 France 4-1 Northern Ireland (Armstrong)
Northern Ireland actually took the lead in the game against France, Martin O’Neill’s goal being wrongly ruled out for offside..........as a team famous for holding on for 1-nil wins, who knows what might have happened had the goal stood!
John Hill played for the Glens from 1968 – 1975 when he emigrated to New Zealand. As a full-back, he made 327 appearances for Glentoran and scored 8 goals. He played for Distillery before being signed by John Colrain. He won the League twice with Glentoran and also played in the Irish Cup final in 1973 when the Glens defeated Linfield 3-2 at Windsor Park. After 3 years in New Zealand John qualified to play for the ‘All-Whites’ – the NZ national side. He made his international debut at the age of 32 against Mexico in Auckland. NZ played 15 qualifying games to reach Spain 82, defeating China in Singapore to finally book their spot. They were drawn in a group with Brazil, Scotland and Russia. John Hill played in the opening fixture against Scotland. Although they lost 5-2, John set up the second goal and was names New Zealand’s ‘Man of the Match’. Disappointingly for John he was left out of the games against Russia and Brazil.
