World Cup Willys…
#50
Ireland (N)
…& fourth of all through the early doors of International Football come storming…
the…
Northern Irish!
Main Man…
Their…
…in 1878, organises the first ever Footballing spectacle* ever to be held on Irish soil after returning from a holiday in Scotland, where he’d just witnessed his first ever Game…
John McAlery
*…The particular spectacle in question, an invitation match between the teams John had witnessed on his Scotch sojurn, Queen’s Park & Caledonian…
…In 1882 he manfully Skippers them through all of Belfast’s many weathers as they take their International Footballing bow - Fair to say, it doesn’t end all that well (…it doesn’t start too well, either & the less said about the middle, the better…)
Ireland
0-13
England
Still to this day Ireland’s biggest ever defeat & England’s biggest ever victory…
Ireland’s foremost Footballer of the Nineteenth Century, quite clearly head & shoulders above all other contenders, Distillery F.C’s…
Olphie Stanfield
“…the complete Forward, capable of scoring with either foot or his head…”
…finishes Football’s rough & tumble Century of origin as it’s most capped player…
Olphie, between ‘87 & ‘97, aquires a grand total of Thirty of them, all in all, (…a figure that won’t be surpassed until as late as 1911…) & in 1891 finds himself becoming the first Irishman to win the Home Internationals* ‘Golden Boot’…
—The Golden WHAAAT!
*The British International Championship, 1884/1984
—Go with it, Man !
Football’s first World Cup…
coming real soon…
Ireland (N)’s
World Cup Finals Report…
Tournaments: 3
P W D L G+ G- Pts
13 3 5 5 13 23 14
Best Finish: 8th
( 1958 )
World Cup Rating…
B+
The smallest Nation to appear at multiple Tournaments, record a Win, register a Goal & to progress from a World Cup group, Ireland’s North, with wins against no lesser lights than the Spanish & the Czechs & drawing with the West Germans to boot, ‘little’ Northern Ireland have a World Cup Finals record of which to be humongously proud!
P.S
(…Ireland (N), in the very earliest days of the International Football lark would play in Windsor Blue, Emerald Green or, sometimes, just a good old Plain White, paired always with, however, as one can quite clearly herald, White Shorts & Black Stockings! )
How do we know..?
…because…
Historical Football Kits…(link)
