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Jimmy McIlroy
Northern Irish footballer

Jimmy McIlroy

The basics

Quick Facts

The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

James "Jimmy" McIlroy MBE (born 25 October 1931) is a former Northern Irish footballer who played for Glentoran, Burnley, Stoke City and Oldham Athletic. He is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of Burnley, having played 497 matches for the "Clarets" and scoring 131 goals.

Career

Burnley

McIlroy was born in Lambeg, County Antrim and he was introduced to football at an early age as his father, Harry played for Lisburn Distillery and his uncle, Willie played for Portadown. After leaving school McIlroy played for Glentoran before joining Burnley in March 1950 for £7,000. He soon cemented his reputation as one of the finest scheming inside forwards since World War II. He was dubbed as the 'Brain' of Burnley and was a very composed passer of the ball only releasing it when he was sure of finding a team mate. His neat footwork made him a crowd favourite at Turf Moor and indeed for the Northern Ireland national team where he made 55 caps. He helped Burnley win the First Division in 1959–60 and reach the FA Cup Final in 1962, losing 3–1 to Tottenham Hotspur. After 497 matches for the "Clarets" scoring 131 goals, McIlory was allowed to leave for Stoke City for a cut price £25,000, which came as a shock to the Burnley fans who branded chairman Bob Lord 'insane'.

Stoke City

McIlroy joined Tony Waddington's Stoke who at the time had a collection of experienced veterans with the likes of Stanley Matthews, Dennis Viollet, Jackie Mudie and Don Ratcliffe. He arrived at Stoke with the side top of the table but his debut for Stoke was a disaster as Stoke crashed to a 6–0 defeat at Norwich City. Regardless Stoke continued their push for promotion and with McIlroy's intelligent passing featuring heavily they claimed the Second Division title in 1962–63. He scored 12 goals in 1963–64 as Stoke established themselves in the top tier, he also played in the 1964 League Cup Final as Stoke lost 4–3 Leicester City. His final match for the "Potters" was against Burnley on 27 December 1965 leaving to become manager of Oldham Athletic.

Later career

In January 1966 he moved into management after being recruited by new Oldham Athletic chairman Ken Bates. With Oldham struggling at the foot of the Third Division, Oldham paid Stoke £5,000 so that they could resister McIlroy as a player again. He signed several former Stoke City team-mates, including Bill Asprey, Alan Philpott, George Kinnell and Keith Bebbington. However McIlroy did not cope well with the pressure of management and resigned after losing 4–0 against Luton Town on the opening day of the 1968–69 season. He returned to Stoke City for a short while as assistant to Waddington before moving to Bolton Wanderers as coach and assistant to Nat Lofthouse. McIlroy had an 18-day spell in charge after Lofthouse's departure but resigned after just two matches on principle after being told by the board to sell players.

After football

He retired to the Burnley area and is still a regular attender of Burnley home matches. He was given Freedom of the Borough in December 2008 and was given a testimonial match by Burnley in 2009.

McIlroy was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to football and to charity, and arranged to receive the honour at Burnley's Turf Moor ground rather than at Buckingham Palace.

In April 2015, the feature-length documentary Spirit of '58 was screened as part of the Belfast Film Festival. It featured Jimmy McIlroy prominently alongside the other surviving players (Billy Bingham, Peter McParland, Billy Simpson and Harry Gregg) as it told the story of Northern Ireland's journey throughout the 1950s under the managership of Peter Doherty, culminating in the 1958 World Cup.

Jimmy McIlroy Stand

Burnley's stadium, Turf Moor has a stand named in McIlroy's honour. The stadium's eastern stand was rebuilt in the late 1990s after the Beehole End was demolished and was named the "Jimmy McIlroy Stand".

Career statistics

Playing career

  • Sourced from Jimmy McIlroy profile at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
ClubSeasonDivisionLeagueFA CupLeague CupOther[A]Total
AppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Burnley1950–51First Division3051000315
1951–52First Division2840000284
1952–53First Division381131004112
1953–54First Division401731004318
1954–55First Division4031000413
1955–56First Division2445100295
1956–57First Division401353004516
1957–58First Division361633003919
1958–59First Division4065100457
1959–60First Division3266100387
1960–61First Division33107131514813
1961–62First Division36158100004416
1962–63First Division226300000256
Total43911650133151497131
Stoke City1962–63Second Division186000000186
1963–64First Division3294370004312
1964–65First Division311302000361
1965–66First Division170002000190
Total9816731100011619
Oldham Athletic1965–66Third Division120000000120
1966–67Third Division251101000271
1967–68Third Division2000100030
Total391102000421
Career Total576133581616151655151
A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the European Cup and FA Charity Shield.

Managerial career

TeamFromToRecord
GWDLWin %
Oldham Athletic1 January 19661 August 196812246265037.70
Bolton Wanderers1 November 197019 November 1970200200.00
Total12446265237.10

International goals

Scores and results list Northern Ireland's goal tally first.

#DateVenueOpponentResultCompetition
16 October 1956Belfast, Northern Ireland England1–11957 British Home Championship
21 May 1957Belfast, Northern Ireland Portugal3–01958 FIFA World Cup qualification
36 November 1957London, UK England3–21958 British Home Championship
415 January 1958Belfast, Northern Ireland Italy2–11958 FIFA World Cup qualification
515 October 1958Madrid, Spain Spain2–6Friendly match
65 November 1958Glasgow, Scotland Scotland2–21959 British Home Championship
722 April 1959Wrexham, Wales Wales4–11959 British Home Championship
83 May 1961Athens, Greece Greece1–21962 FIFA World Cup qualification
910 May 1961West Berlin, Germany West Germany1–21962 FIFA World Cup qualification
1022 November 1961London, UK England1–11962 British Home Championship

Honours

Burnley
  • First Division champions: 1959–60
  • FA Cup runner-up: 1962
Stoke City
  • Second Division champions: 1962–63

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
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