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World
Cup fever is starting to bite, but one country with a distinguished
recent past, Northern Ireland, won’t be off to Germany, in
spite of beating England in a famous qualifier last year.
A veteran of Northern Irish football, Jimmy Nicholl, has got his
own tales to tell of taking part in two World Cup Final series,
in Spain in ’82 and Mexico in ’86. Capped 73 times for
Northern Ireland, Jimmy was a stalwart of Billy Bingham’s two
expeditions onto the world stage, though both times, preparation
for the tournament was not the best, as he explains.
“I left Manchester United just before the transfer deadline
in March 1982. I had to get away because it just wasn’t working
out for me there under Ron Atkinson. I wasn’t playing regularly
and the World Cup was just a few months away, and I was looking
to go and play for Northern Ireland, but I needed to be playing
football.
I played in an international in France on the Wednesday, got home
on the Thursday, transfer deadline day, and got a call to say a
club was interested. Bob Houghton, who had been coach of Malmo when
they got to the European Cup Final in 1979, was coaching Toronto
Blizzard and he took me over to play in Canada. I’d never imagined
I’d leave English football for America so young, I was only
25, but I had to get away and so I went.”
Keeping in shape in Toronto, boss Billy Bingham had no qualms in
including Nicholl in the party that went out to enjoy the nation’s
first World Cup since 1958 when Danny Blanchflower had been the
inspiration behind the team. Their qualifying group could hardly
have been more daunting, including hosts Spain, Yugoslavia and Honduras,
but they were about to embark on a month the nation would never
forget.
“A country like ours just goes to the World Cup to enjoy it,
do the best you can but really pleased to be there, and especially
twice in a row as it was. You think all them great players like
George Best and all who didn’t go because we’d not got
there since 1958, and there were a few decent teams in that period
as well.
To go in ’82 was great under the circumstances. We played Scotland
at Windsor Park towards the end of qualifying, the same day as Portugal
were playing Sweden, and we only got a 0-0 draw. Scotland qualified
that night and we were so down because we thought Portugal would
win at home and that would pretty much seal second place for them.
We went back to our hotel after the game and the result came through.
Sweden had won 2-1 and we couldn’t believe it. That meant we
only had to beat Israel in our last game and we were through and
that was a fantastic achievement.
“We went out to Spain as nobodies, but it was one of those
times when everything suddenly comes together. Big Norman Whiteside
suddenly appeared, 17 years old, making his international debut,
and playing like a seasoned pro. We had Gerry Armstrong who won
the British player of the tournament award even though Dalglish,
Keegan, Robson, people like that were out there as well. It was
a great thing to be a part of.
“Everything snowballed during the group, you could see it all
opening up. We used to win games we should have lost and lose games
we should have won, you never knew what was going to happen, but
Billy Bingham slowly turned that round and we had great belief among
ourselves.
The opening two games, we drew 0-0 with Yugoslavia and 1-1 with
Honduras, Norma Whiteside proved he was already a man in those games,
and that set up the game against Spain on the Friday night, which
is one of the greatest games I’ve ever been involved in for
a feeling of achievement. We went down to ten men when Mal Donaghy
got sent off, we were playing in Spain’s own backyard, in Valencia
and we still came through to beat them 1-0.
“I had six years at Raith Rovers, we were quite successful,
won the Division One title a couple of times, got in the Premier
League, a wee run in Europe, beat Celtic in the Cup Final, and these
were part-time players on £50 when I arrived and we slowly
built it. Whenever I needed to tell them about what they could achieve
in the game, it was always Northern Ireland stories I used to tell
them. I never spoke about Manchester United or Glasgow Rangers,
it was always Northern Ireland, “Here’s what you can achieve
when you put your mind to it.”
“The hardest thing to win is the first thing. Once you do that,
you start to believe you’re a better player than what you thought,
you see average players blossom. In 1982, we beat Spain and then
in the next group phase, we drew 2-2 with Austria after being 2-0
down, then we were 1-0 up against France, we had another disallowed
which should never have happened and we got beat 4-1, but the confidence
we took from that was massive, and the supporters felt the same.
They then went to Mexico in ’86 believing we were going to
do something.”
Prior to playing out in Mexico, Jimmy found himself with problems
on he club front again. Having signed for West Bromwich Albion under
Johnny Giles, he found himself out of favour when Ron Saunders came
in to replace him, Saunders starting what became a catastrophic
decade for the club.
“Then Ron Saunders came in and we didn’t see eye to eye
shall we say, so I wasn’t in the team the last couple of months,
I was training with the reserves and the kids, and this was the
period leading up to the World Cup which was a worry for me. But
I spoke to Billy Bingham, and he told me to keep my head down, keep
fit and as long as I was in good shape when the squad was announced,
I’d be fine.
“I was desperate to go because it had been a hard group to
qualify from, with England and Romania in there. We needed a point
going to Wembley for the last game. It ended up 0-0 and coming off
the field, Alan McDonald was interviewed and he said, “I’m
telling you now, if anybody says that was a fix, they’re wrong!”
Nobody had said anything about there being a fix, but big Alan was
denying it already! Pat Jennings was magnificent that night, made
some great saves, we worked really hard and got the result we deserved.
“Pat was a great goalkeeper. He was so laid back, the coolest
man you could meet. He’d have been in the Rat Pack easy, him,
Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, he’d have fit in
easy! The last couple of years we played for Northern Ireland, he’d
say to me, “You’re my bank of England. I’m nearly
finished, I’m nearly 40 years of age, I’m a good looking
big man and I want to remain good looking. So when I come off my
line for a cross, all I’ll be looking for are elbows.
If I see an elbow coming, I’ll be taking my eye off the ball,
so you make sure you’re on the goal line.” That’s
what I did. Any time I saw him go for a cross, I’d get back
on the line. It was great for me because the commentators would
all be saying, “Yet another goal line clearance from Nicholl!”
He was a great goalkeeper and a calming influence.
“Before the tournament, we went to Albuquerque for ten days
to acclimatise to the heat and the altitude. Billy Bingham had this
running track set up at a certain level, then there was a run up
the mountains at another level. It was maybe only a couple of hundred
yards long, but it took you nearly six minutes to run it, up a hill.
Horrific it was. But when we came back down to sea level and had
a couple of games at local colleges, you felt great after the altitude
training. But you could do nothing about the heat which was overpowering.
“We had no excuses and we were disappointed to go out in the
first stage – we drew with Algeria then got beat by Spain 2-1
which was a bit of a grudge match for them after ’82 I suppose.
The final game was against Brazil, they beat us 3-0 to send us home.
Josimar hit one from about 45 yards to score the second. That was
a learning experience.
The saying men against boys, I could never understand what that
meant. I always thought if you were any kind of man, you’re
out on the park doing your best whoever you’re up against.
But that day, jeez!
If there was ever man against boys, that was it. If you went to
close somebody down, he’d hear you coming and he’d touch
the ball and run.
You’d think he’d lost it but he’d just put it into
space for somebody else to run onto. It was great to watch, which
is what we did!
It was coming down to earth with a bump from ’82, but that’s
what the game’s all about, that’s the real world class
players and teams. That’s what you want to have at a World
Cup.”
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