Billy Bingham

Everton Bingham joined Everton for a fee of £15,000 plus John Bramwell and Alex Ashworth in October 1960. He had been signed by manager Johnny Carey as outside-left Tommy Ring had broken his leg, with Mickey Lill being switched to outside-left from right-wing to accommodate. Bingham immediately formed a good understanding with Bobby Collins, though a poor start to the 1960–61 campaign left the Toffees unable to get close to runaway First Division champions Tottenham Hotspur. They exited the FA Cup at the third round, with Bingham playing poorly out-of-position on the left following injury to Lill. Carey resigned and was replaced as manager at Goodison Park by Harry Catterick.

A fourth-place finish followed in 1961–62, and the "Toffees" won the league title in 1962–63.

Port Vale Bingham joined Port Vale for a then joint-club record fee of £15,000 in August 1963. He scored seven goals in 38 appearances in 1963–64, as Freddie Steele's "Valiants" finished 13th in the Third Division. This changed with the appointment of Peter Doherty as manager, and the team went on to defeat England by three goals to two in a British Home Championship match at Wembley on 6 November 1957.

On 16 January 1957, Bingham scored his country's first goal in World Cup qualification, as they claimed a 1–1 draw away at Portugal. A subsequent defeat in Italy and home win over Portugal, left Northern Ireland needing to beat the Italians at home to win the group and qualify for the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden. The originally scheduled fixture was converted into a friendly after the original referee was unable to make it, and though the friendly game was drawn 2–2, Northern Ireland won the re-arranged fixture by two goals to one.

In the tournament itself, Northern Ireland beat Czechoslovakia by one goal to nil in the opening match of Group 1, with Bingham and Wilbur Cush forming "an approximation of a double spearhead". The Swedish press wrote that "[Cush] and Billy Bingham gave an exhibition of fast, clever football never seen before at the ground." The second game was a 3–1 loss to Argentina, against whom he felt their tactics were ill-suited. They needed to beat West Germany in the final group game to ensure qualification from the group, though the ensuing 2–2 stalemate meant that a play-off match with Czechoslovakia (who had won 6–1 against Argentina) was required to decide who would follow the Germans into the knock-out phase. The game was level at 1–1 at full-time, which meant that extra-time followed, and Bingham convinced his teammates to perform calisthenics to demoralise the Czechs. Peter McParland went on to score his fifth goal of the tournament to give the Irish a 2–1 win. The World Cup jounry ended with a 4–0 defeat to France in the quarter-finals.

Qualification for the 1962 FIFA World Cup went poorly, with three defeats in the four games of the qualification group. Bingham was awarded a total of 56 full caps, a record at the time, and also scored 10 goals, half of which were scored in British Home Championship matches against Scotland. Most of his caps came alongside inside-forward partner Jimmy McIlroy, who played domestically for Burnley.

Managerial career

Southport Bingham became a coach at Southport in June 1965 and was appointed manager at the end of the year, at the expense of Willie Cunningham. He led the team to a tenth-place finish in the Fourth Division in 1965–66. In his first full season in charge, 1966–67, he led the "Sandgrounders" to promotion as runners-up – the club's first-ever promotion. He departed Haig Avenue in October 1967, He stayed at the club for three months before he left due to the bad results that kept the club out of the spots that led to next season's European competitions.

Everton Bingham returned to English football when he took over as manager at Everton in May 1973, Their draws with Honduras and Yugoslavia meant they shocked the world by finishing top of their group with only two goals from Gerry Armstrong. They exited in the second round with a 2–2 draw with Austria and a 4–1 defeat to France.

He led Northern Ireland to third in the British Home Championship in 1983, before they won the last ever edition of the tournament in 1984 with a 2–0 win over the Scots. However, Northern Ireland failed in qualifying for UEFA Euro 1984, despite winning their group games 1–0 over West Germany both at Belfast and at the Volksparkstadion. They were ten minutes away from qualification when, in the final group game, Germany's Gerhard Strack hit a winner past Albania to claim the only qualification spot in the group for the Germans; they finished ahead of Northern Ireland on goal difference.

Bingham proved that 1982 was no fluke after he led the nation to the 1986 FIFA World Cup. They qualified, along with England, after beating Romania, Finland, and Turkey to claim second spot in their group. They faced an insurmountable challenge, however, in Brazil and Spain in group D, and exited the tournament with only a point against Algeria. He also coached Al-Nassr in the Saudi Professional League during the 1987–88 season, and led the club to their fifth King's Cup title in 1987.

The retirements of O'Neill, Jennings and Whiteside (the latter due to injury) robbed Bingham of his best players. Northern Ireland failed to reach the 1990 and 1994 finals, and he stepped down in November 1993. The final game of the 1994 World Cup qualification campaign was against Republic of Ireland, and was to be marred by sectarianism and controversy. Bingham's men set out to deny the Irish the point they needed to secure qualification ahead of Denmark, with Northern Ireland unable to qualify. Jimmy Quinn's strike was cancelled out by a late Irish equaliser. After the game there was an ugly exchange between Bingham and Ireland manager, Jack Charlton. Both 1990 and 1994 qualification groups ended with Spain and the Republic qualifying, with Northern Ireland finishing some distance short of the mark.

Bingham later served Blackpool as director of football.

Style of play Bingham played at outside-right and had excellent tactical and positional skills and good scoring ability. He was married and divorced twice and had a son and daughter from his first marriage. He published his autobiography, Soccer with the Stars, in 1964; journalist Brian Glanville contributed the foreword.

He was diagnosed with dementia in 2006 and died at a care home in Southport on 9 June 2022, aged 90.

Career statistics Club

Scores and results list Northern Ireland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bingham goal.

Managerial + Managerial record by team and tenure

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As manager Southport Football League Fourth Division second-place promotion: 1966–67

Linfield Irish League: 1970–71 Ulster Cup: 1971 Gold Cup: 1971 Blaxnit Cup: 1971

Northern Ireland British Home Championship: 1980, 1984

Al-Nassr King's Cup: 1987