[ad_1]
Sammy McIlroy tells two rather traumatic stories about going out to buy fish and chips.
The first ended with the late Brian Greenhoff, his friend and teammate, having a gun pointed at a Sydney chippy while on tour in 1975 after helping Manchester United win promotion to the top flight.
‘The hotel reception recommended it and I said to Brian,’ Go away, ‘McIlroy recalls. He ran back into the room, white as a ghost.
Greenhoff escaped injury that night, but McIlroy wasn’t so lucky when he brought his pregnant future wife Cynthia out looking for dinner in Stretford two years earlier.
Their car was hit so hard that a team of firefighters had to pull them out of the rubble. McIlroy, who was just 18 at the time, suffered the brunt of the impact.
‘Cynthia told me that when the fire brigade and the ambulance arrived, she heard one of the people say,’ Make sure he’s okay, forget about him. They actually thought he was dead, ” said McIlroy, who suffered a collapsed lung, four broken ribs and head injuries.
I was in a coma for a few days. The doctor later told me that it was my physical condition that helped me get ahead. Luckily everything went well and my son Sammy was born. At the hospital, I read that Tommy Docherty brought players from the left, right and center. I was thinking it could be my end at United. ”
The Northern Irishman ended up spending 13 years at Old Trafford. He made a scoring debut in the Manchester derby and then had an unhappy season at City – No. 4 on the list of just 14 players to represent both post-war clubs.
Now 66, the divorced father of three (he also has two daughters, Louise and Faye, as well as son Sammy) has become a popular figure in the game day lounges at Old Trafford in recent years. He also plays for United’s veteran squad, so there’s no guessing where his loyalty will lie in Saturday’s Manchester derby 183.
McIlroy was the last of the Busby Babes. The last signing made by the legendary United manager before Sir Matt resigned in 1969.
He was able to follow his hero George Best from Belfast to Old Trafford, but his time was up.
A team that had lifted the European Cup a year earlier was about to enter a downward spiral that would end in the unthinkable: relegation to the Second Division.
At first, McIlroy suffered from chronic homesickness that was only made worse by having to leave his parents in East Belfast with the city under a curfew at the height of The Troubles.
“The guards who protected the streets knocked on people’s doors for men to walk with them. My father turned them down, which was probably not the right thing to do, ”said McIlroy, who made his Northern Ireland debut in Hull because his opponent Spain would not risk traveling to Belfast.
“I had some friends who lost their lives getting involved in shootings. When your parents are involved, you think that anything can happen with stray bullets flying.
“Manchester United were great with that because they got my mom and dad out of there.”
McIlroy made his senior debut against City at the age of 17, although he headed to the club on a bus that day thinking he was going to help pick up the dirty kit. Instead, he was a late replacement for the injured Denis Law. He scored in a 3-3 tie at Maine Road and also in the next three games.
However, United’s European Cup winning team was breaking down and Best was going AWOL.
“When you win the European Cup and Sir Matt ends the day, it is very difficult,” said McIlroy. “ It was a dead end situation for Wilf McGuinness to take over.
“There were some great players coming into the twilight of their careers, all these superstars that we had. When you think of people like Paddy Crerand, Bobby Charlton was in his 30s, Denis Law had some injuries. How can you make people equal them?
“ Once those players walked away and Bestie started going backwards a little bit, it was all downhill.
‘The older players were upset by what was happening to George. Everyone wanted him on the team because he could win a game with a little magic. But I think he got the hump because the club was not trying to rebuild around him. ‘
McGuinness was quickly replaced as manager by Frank O’Farrell and then it was Docherty’s turn on the bench.
He couldn’t avoid relegation in April 1974, when a dejected Law led Manchester City to victory against his former club when Birmingham’s win over Norwich sent United down.
Referee David Smith ended the game after fans invaded the Old Trafford pitch for the second time.
“Denis didn’t send us down, the results were against us anyway,” McIlroy said. ‘But once Denis left, that was the end for the fans. Explosion. We were gone. It has been the calmest locker room I have ever been in. People with their heads in their hands realizing that the great Manchester United, European champion six years ago, was now in the Second Division.
‘It was incredibly painful. Embarrassing. An absolute nightmare for any United player. People asked what was happening and I had no answer. ‘
McIlroy went on vacation with Greenhoff and their families and had no doubts about how fans were feeling. ‘People say things when they have a drink. The descent was difficult to bear. ”
He recalls the pleasure other clubs took to see United humiliated and spit upon as they faced a hostile reception on the away field the following season.
“We were there to play in the Second Division,” he said. “It used to be difficult to get on the bus. There was a lot of abuse and it was very scary at times. ”
The relegation provided the impetus for United’s resurgence under Docherty. They made it to the Division Two title, entertaining packed stadiums from across the country.
“That was the turning point for Manchester United to be great again. Even the fans are talking about those days now, ” McIlroy said.
He established himself at the heart of a vibrant attacking team with Gordon Hill, Steve Coppell, Lou Macari, Stuart Pearson and Jimmy Greenhoff that reached the FA Cup final three times in four years.
United bounced back from a defeat at the hands of Second Division Southampton in 1976 to beat favorite Liverpool the following year, but McIlroy’s late draw could not prevent another heartbreaking loss to Arsenal in 1979.
“We were one side of the crack cup,” he said. “Every professional footballer wanted to play the Cup final at Wembley and we were lucky enough to do it three times.”
McIlroy believes Docherty may have enjoyed greater success over time, but the Scotsman was fired in 1977 over an affair with United’s wife Laurie Brown.
There is no shortage of stories about The Doc.
McIlroy recalls going to a youth team tournament with United in Switzerland shortly after recovering from his car accident and getting drunk on three halves of beer. ‘They told me on the bus going to the airport that the boss had brought up my drinks!’
A trip on the team coach saw Docherty go berserk after the players locked him in the cramped bathroom. Another saw the manager threaten to kick Gerry Daly out of the coach somewhere in Yorkshire until he sang Simon and Garfunkel’s The Boxer.
Docherty was succeeded by the more pragmatic Dave Sexton and later by the equally colorful Ron Atkinson.
People think McIlroy’s time at United was up once Atkinson signed Bryan Robson, but he blames his decision to abandon a team flight to Kuala Lumpur as he was about to leave.
“The biggest mistake of my life,” admits McIlroy, who had been delayed at Heathrow for five hours on the way back from a World Cup qualifying match in Sweden and wanted to spend a night with his family before flying to Malaysia.
‘He just couldn’t face it. Big Ron held it against me and rightly so. I was wrong. He said, “Nobody gets off a plane in Manchester” and fined me two weeks’ salary.
“I scored a hat-trick against the Wolves the day Bryan signed at Old Trafford and I could have played on the left side of him. Ron hinted at that. But not long after he called me and asked how much I thought it was worth. Stoke had made a club record offer of £ 350,000. He called me for six. My pride was hurt and I signed for Stoke.
Two days later, Howard Kendall called me on the phone and asked why I wasn’t talking to him. Nobody told me that Everton, who was fantastic in the mid-80s, had come for me. I held that grudge for several years. ‘
McIlroy left United after playing 419 times and scoring 71 goals for the club. He came back to Manchester for a season at City but it didn’t work out. He was hampered by Achilles problems and his fans could not forget his past.
“I used to get ‘latest Busby Babe this and that, come back to United.” They booed me in the warm-up, ” he said.
“ Even though I scored on my debut, a section of the fans just didn’t like it. I played in a derby against United on Maine Road and got a better reception from United fans than City, so I knew the writing was on the wall. ‘
McIlroy played in Sweden and Austria before ending his career in the lower divisions of North West England.
He won 89 games for Northern Ireland, appearing in the 1982 World Cup in Spain and as captain of Billy Bingham’s team in the 1986 tournament in Mexico.
McIlroy also led his country and achieved club-level success, guiding both Macclesfield Town and Morecambe to the Football League.
When he decided to leave Morecambe in 2011, he was 55 years old and has not worked in management since. Had more to give?
“One hundred percent,” he said. I definitely left too early and that’s a big regret. I’ve made some bad decisions in my career. ‘
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
[ad_2]
