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Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Huddersfield Town A.F.C.


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Birth of James McAlinden, Irish Footballer

James McAlinden, Irish footballer who plays as a forward for several clubs, most notably, Belfast Celtic, Portsmouth, Shamrock Rovers and Southend United, is born in Belfast on December 27, 1917. As an international, he also plays for both Ireland teams – the IFA XI and the FAI XI. After retiring as a player, he goes on to manage Glenavon, Lisburn Distillery and Drogheda United.

In 1934, aged 16, McAlinden is playing for Glentoran Reserves, when after a game against their reserves, he is offered a professional contract by Belfast Celtic. Together with Jackie Vernon, Tommy Breen, Billy McMillan and Charlie Tully, he subsequently becomes a prominent member of the Celtic team managed by Elisha Scott. This team dominates the Irish League in the era before and during World War II. Among his most notable contributions is scoring in the 2–1 win against Bangor in the 1938 Irish Cup final.

In December 1938, McAlinden signs for Portsmouth for a fee of £7.500. He makes his debut for the club against Chelsea and goes on to become a regular in the side. Within six months of his arrival at the club, he helps them win the 1939 FA Cup final, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 4–1. After the outbreak of World War II, he plays three times for Portsmouth in wartime regional leagues, but his first spell with the club ends when he then returns to Belfast Celtic in 1939. He returns to Portsmouth for a second stint in 1946. In September 1947, he leaves Portsmouth once again and joins Stoke City for a fee of £7,000.

Following the end of his second stint with Belfast Celtic and before he rejoins Portsmouth, McAlinden signs for Shamrock Rovers in September 1945. He makes his debut against Shelbourne at Glenmalure Park on September 16. While playing for Rovers his teammates include Paddy Coad, Peter Farrell and Tommy Eglington. During his one season with Rovers, he helps the club reach the 1946 FAI Cup final. However Rovers lose 3–1 to Drumcondra.

McAlinden joins Stoke City in September 1947 for a then club record fee of £7,000. He becomes regular inside forward under manager Bob McGrory in 1947–48, playing in 33 matches scoring just twice against Aston Villa and Huddersfield Town. His lack of goals sees him fall out of favour at the Victoria Ground and he is sold to Third Division South side Southend United in October 1948.

In 1948, Southend United signs McAlinden from Stoke City for a fee of £8,000. He continues to play for United until 1954 and during his time with the club he serves as club captain. He also becomes something of a cult hero among the club’s fans and is remembered as being possibly the best player ever to play for the club. In 1950, he is caught up in controversy after it is alleged that he received illegal payments during his second spell with Portsmouth. As a result, he is suspended for the first two months of the 1950–51 season. In April 1954, he makes his last home appearance for United in a 4–1 win over Queens Park Rangers.

When McAlinden begins his international career in 1937 there are in effect, two Ireland teams, chosen by two rival associations. Both associations, the Northern Ireland–based Irish Football Association (IFA) and the Irish Free State–based Football Association of Ireland (FAI), claim jurisdiction over the whole of Ireland and select players from the whole island. As a result, several notable Irish players from this era, including McAlinden play for both teams.

Between 1937 and 1948, McAlinden makes five appearances for the IFA XI, making his international debut in a 1–1 draw with Scotland at Pittodrie Stadium on November 10, 1937. His IFA XI appearances also include the 8–4 defeat against a Combined Services XI at Windsor Park on September 9, 1944. This team is basically a Great Britain XI and features, among others, Matt Busby, Stanley Matthews, Tommy Lawton and Stan Mortensen. He also plays against England in 7–2 defeat at Windsor Park on September 9, 1946. He makes his last appearance for the IFA XI on October 10, 1948, in a 6–2 defeat to England at Windsor Park. He makes his first three appearances for the IFA XI while with Belfast Celtic, his fourth while at Portsmouth and his fifth while at Southend United.

In 1946, while with Portsmouth, McAlinden also makes two appearances for the FAI XI. He is one of several players born in Northern Ireland who benefits from the FAI’s attempts to establish their all-Ireland influence. In June 1946, when the FAI organises an Iberian tour, he, together with Jackie Vernon, Billy McMillan and Paddy Sloan, is one of four Northern Irish players called up. He subsequently plays in both the 3–1 defeat to Portugal on June 16 and then helps Ireland gain a surprise 1–0 victory against Spain on June 23, 1946.

In 1955, McAlinden becomes player/manager of Glenavon. He continues playing for an additional year before finally retiring as a player to concentrate on management. During a thirteen-year stint with Glenavon, he guides them two Irish League titles, three Irish Cup victories and one Gold Cup. After leaving Glenavon, works as a full-time scout for Coventry City before taking charge at Lisburn Distillery in 1969. He subsequently guides a Distillery team that includes a young Martin O’Neill to a win in the 1971 Irish Cup. Later in his first season with Drogheda United, he guides them to the 1976 FAI Cup final, only to lose 1–0 to Bohemian.

McAlinden dies at the age of 75 on November 15, 1993.


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Birth of Frank Stapleton, Association Footballer & Manager

Francis Anthony Stapleton, Irish former professional association football player and manager, is born in Dublin on July 10, 1956. He is best remembered for his time at Arsenal, Manchester United and as a pivotal player for the Republic of Ireland national football team. He has also been manager at Bradford City and Major League Soccer (MLS) club New England Revolution.

Stapleton is a distinguished centre-forward, once touted as being among the best in the world in his position, and an exceptionally strong header of the ball. He starts his career with Arsenal, joining them in 1972 as an apprentice, after being turned down by Manchester United. He makes his first-team debut in March 1975, at home to Stoke City, and goes on to form a potent striking partnership with Malcolm Macdonald. The two score 46 goals between them in 1976–77. He is Arsenal’s top scorer for the three following seasons and helps the Gunners reach a trio of FA Cup finals. He scores one of the goals in Arsenal’s 1979 FA Cup Final 3–2 win over Manchester United, and scores 108 goals in 300 appearances in total for the Gunners.

Stapleton moves on to Manchester United in the summer of 1981 for £900,000 as new manager Ron Atkinson begins building a team capable of challenging for silverware after a disappointing 1980–81 season under Dave Sexton. He helps United win the 1983 and 1985 FA Cups. It is in the first of those finals, when he scores against Brighton & Hove Albion, in which he makes history by becoming the first man to score for two different clubs in FA Cup Finals. United finishes in the top four of the league in each of Stapleton’s first five seasons at Old Trafford, and comes close to winning a league title medal in the 1985–86 season after United wins their first ten league games of the season before their form slumps and they finished fourth. Atkinson is sacked and replaced by Alex Ferguson in November 1986, and Stapleton remains a regular member of the first team under the new manager, but he leaves at the end of the season to sign for Ajax. There, he makes just six appearances and scores one goal before quickly being moved to Belgian side Anderlecht at the end of 1987, followed by a three-month loan back to England with Derby County. He then plays for French club Le Havre for a season, before returning to England with Blackburn Rovers in 1989, followed by moves to Aldershot, Huddersfield Town (as player-coach) and Bradford City.

After three seasons as player-manager at Bradford, Stapleton is sacked following their narrow failure to qualify for the Division Two playoffs at the end of the 1993-94 season. He then has a brief spell at Brighton & Hove Albion in the 1994–95 season, playing two games before finally announcing his retirement as a player.

Stapleton also wins 71 caps for the Republic of Ireland national team, scoring a then record 20 goals. He makes his international debut under then player-manager Johnny Giles in a friendly against Turkey in Ankara in 1976 at 20 years of age. He scores after only three minutes of his debut when he heads home a Giles free-kick at the near post. That friendly international finishes 3–3 and marks the start of a magnificent international career for the quiet and reserved Stapleton.

Stapleton is committed to international football insisting that an “international release clause” be inserted to all of his contracts so that he can be released to play in international games for Ireland.

Stapleton plays a significant role in Ireland’s attempt to qualify for the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain in 1982. Goals against Cyprus, the Netherlands and France by him in the qualifying matches are not enough as Ireland is denied a place at the World Cup by a superior French goal difference. He is made captain of the national team for the qualifying campaign for the 1986 FIFA World Cup though Ireland fails to emulate their fine performance in the 1982 qualifiers.

Jack Charlton takes over as the Irish manager in 1986 and he keeps Stapleton as captain despite a sometimes uneasy relationship between the two men. Stapleton scores a magnificent diving header in the opening UEFA Euro 1988 qualifier against Belgium in the 2–2 draw at the Heysel Stadium, Brussels, that September. He also scores in the 2–1 defeat by Bulgaria in Sofia on April 1, 1987, with another goal against Luxembourg in the 2–1 victory at Lansdowne Road the following September.

Stapleton captains the Irish team to the 1988 Euro finals and plays in all of their matches during the competition including Ireland’s famous victory against England.

After the 1988 European Championships Stapleton remains on the fringe of the national team during qualification for 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy making just two appearances late in the campaign. By then, his 20 goals for the Republic had made him the national side’s all-time leading goalscorer, a record which is broken ten years later by Niall Quinn, who is in the early stages of his own international career when Stapleton bows out of the international scene. He does, however, score an 87th-minute goal against Malta in a 3–0 friendly in Valletta just prior to those finals in Italy.

Stapleton moves to the United States to manage Major League Soccer side New England Revolution in 1996. In the 2003–04 season he briefly returns to English football as a specialist coach of Bolton Wanderers. The Bolton manager, Sam Allardyce, wants Stapleton to enhance the skills of the strikers at the club and sees the Irishman as an ideal candidate, given his successful playing career.

Stapleton is appointed assistant manager to former teammate Ray Wilkins with Jordan on September 3, 2014.


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Death of Peter Doherty, Northern Ireland Footballer

peter-doherty

Peter Dermot Doherty, Northern Ireland international footballer and manager who played for several clubs, including Manchester City F.C. and Doncaster Rovers F.C., dies in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England on April 6, 1990.

Born in Magherafelt, County Londonderry on June 5, 1913, Doherty begins his career with Glentoran F.C. in the Irish League. After helping Glentoran to the 1933 Irish Cup, early in the 1933–1934 season he joins English club Blackpool F.C., at the age of 19. He then joins Manchester City on February 19, 1936 for a then-club record of £10,000. Blackpool needs the money urgently, and Doherty is summoned from his lunch to report to Bloomfield Road. He tries hard to persuade Blackpool directors that he does not wish to leave the club, for he is due to marry a local girl and has just bought a new house in the town. The fee is an exceptionally high transfer fee for the period, coming within £1,000 of the British record. Doherty’s Manchester City debut, against Preston North End F.C., is not a successful one. Tightly man-marked by Bill Shankly throughout, he fails to make an impact. He later describes the remainder of his first Manchester City season as “uneventful,” however his second is anything but.

Manchester City starts the 1936–1937 season poorly and are in the bottom half of the table until December. Occasional big wins, including a 6–2 defeat of West Bromwich Albion F.C. and a 4–1 defeat of Everton F.C., are mixed with extended barren runs. At one point the club gains just one win in twelve matches. However, Doherty scores goals regularly. A goal in a 5–3 Christmas day loss to Grimsby Town F.C. is his twelfth of the season. Christmas proves to be a turning point for the club, as a win against Middlesbrough F.C. the following day is the start of a long unbeaten run. By April, Manchester City is second in the table and faces a fixture against Arsenal F.C., league leaders and the dominant club of the period. Doherty scores the first goal in a 2–0 win, and City reaches the top of the table. The unbeaten run continues until the end of the season, and City secures their first league championship with a 4–1 win over Sheffield Wednesday F.C.. Doherty, with 30 league goals, is the club’s leading scorer, helped by a run of eleven goals in seven games as the season draws to a close.

Doherty scores 79 goals in 130 appearances during his time at Maine Road. During the World War II years of 1939–1945, Doherty serves in the Royal Air Force. He remains registered as a Manchester City player, scoring 60 goals in 89 wartime matches, though wartime games are not generally included in official records. He also guests for numerous clubs across the country. During a guest appearance for Port Vale F.C. in 1945, he famously goes to take a penalty but instead of shooting he lays it off to a teammate who scores.

After the conclusion of the war, Doherty transfers to Derby County F.C., with whom he wins the FA Cup, scoring a goal in the final itself. He also goes on to play for Huddersfield Town A.F.C., scoring 33 goals in 83 league appearances.

Doherty makes his final move to Doncaster in 1949, where he assumes the role of player-manager. He later becomes manager of the Northern Ireland national football team (1951–1962), for whom he has 16 caps as a player. He leads the country to the 1958 FIFA World Cup, reaching the quarter-finals. He also manages Bristol City F.C..

Doherty’s coaching techniques are revolutionary at the time. He emphasises ball practice and instead of endless laps of the pitch, suggests volleyball “to promote jumping, timing and judgement,” basketball “to encourage split-second decision-making and finding space,” and walking football “to build up calf muscles.”

Later life sees Doherty become a scout for Liverpool F.C., helping to unearth such talents as Kevin Keegan. He is inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Following Doherty’s death in 1990, a plaque to mark his birthplace is placed in Magherafelt. It can be found at what is now a barber shop.