Football World Cup 1958 / Northern Ireland

This article covers the Northern Irish national football team at the 1958 World Cup .

qualification

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Northern Ireland	6: 3	5
2	Italy	5: 5	4th
3	Portugal	4: 7	3

Portugal	-	Northern Ireland	1: 1
Italy	-	Northern Ireland	1-0
Northern Ireland	-	Portugal	3-0
Northern Ireland	-	Italy	2: 1

Northern Irish contingent

Number / name		Association at the time	birthday	International matches
goalkeeper
1	Harry Gregg	Manchester United	10/25/1932
12	Norman Uprichard	Portsmouth FC	04/20/1928
18th	Roy Rea 1	FC Glentoran	11/28/1934
Defense
2	Willie Cunningham	Leicester City	02/20/1930
3	Alf McMichael	Newcastle United	10/01/1927
5	Dick Keith	Newcastle United	05/15/1933
19th	Len Graham 1	Doncaster Rovers	10/17/1925
21st	Tommy Hamill 1st	Linfield FC
midfield
4th	Danny Blanchflower	Tottenham Hotspur	December 3rd, 1928
6th	Bertie Peacock	Celtic Glasgow	December 8, 1937
20th	Sammy Chapman 1	Mansfield Town	02/16/1938
attack
7th	Billy Bingham	Sunderland FC	08/05/1931
8th	Wilbur Cush	Leeds United	06/10/1928
9	Billy Simpson	Glasgow Rangers	12/12/1929
10	Jimmy McIlroy	Burnley FC	10/25/1931
11	Peter McParland	Aston Villa	04/24/1934
13	Tommy Casey	Newcastle United	03/11/1930
14th	Jackie Scott	Grimsby Town	12/22/1933
15th	Sammy McCrory	Southend United	10/11/1924
16	Derek Dougan	Portsmouth FC	01/20/1938
17th	Fay Coyle	Nottingham Forest	04/01/1924
22nd	Bobby Trainor 1	Coleraine FC
Trainer
	Peter Doherty		06/05/1913

¹ Only 17 players actually traveled to Sweden; Rea, Graham, Hamill, Chapman and Trainor stayed home on call.

Northern Irish team games

Preliminary round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	BR Germany	7: 5	4th
2	Northern Ireland	4: 5	3
3	Czechoslovakia	8: 4	3
4th	Argentina	5:10	2

• Northern Ireland - Czechoslovakia 1: 0 (1: 0)

Stadium: Örjans Vall ( Halmstad )

Spectators: 26,000

Referee: Seipelt ( Austria )

Goals: 1-0 Cush (16.)

• Argentina - Northern Ireland 3: 1 (1: 1)

Stadium: Örjans Vall ( Halmstad )

Spectators: 14,000

Referee: Ahlner ( Sweden )

Goals: 0: 1 McParland (3rd), 1: 1 Corbatta (38th) 11m , 2: 1 Menéndez (55th), 3: 1 Avio (59th)

• Federal Republic of Germany - Northern Ireland 2: 2 (1: 1)

Stadium: Malmö Stadion ( Malmö )

Spectators: 35,000

Referee: Campos ( Portugal )

Goals: 0: 1 McParland (17th), 1: 1 Rahn (20th), 1: 2 McParland (58th), 2: 2 Seeler (70th)

McParland, a feared striker for the Northern Irish, made it 1-0 in Herkenrath's goal (17th), but Helmut Rahn equalized three minutes later. The Germans had gained an overweight, but it was precisely in this phase that the Northern Irish (again MacParland, 60th) took the lead. The following game on a goal saw an excellent goalkeeper Harry Gregg, who destroyed all chances of the Germans - except for a violent shot by Uwe Seeler, which saved the Herberger team from a play-off. Germany were group winners, while Northern Ireland had to play against the Czechoslovaks (2-1 win after extra time).

Playoff

• Northern Ireland - Czechoslovakia 2: 1 a.d. (1: 1, 1: 1)

Stadium: Malmö Stadion ( Malmö )

Spectators: 26,000

Referee: Guigue ( France )

Goals: 0: 1 Zikán (19th), 1: 1 McParland (44th), 2: 1 McParland (91st)

Quarter finals

12,000

Idrottspark ( Norrköping )

France

Northern Ireland

Gardeazábal ( Spain )

4: 0 (1: 0)

1: 0 Wisnieski (22nd) 2: 0 Fontaine (55th) 3: 0 Fontaine (63rd) 4: 0 Piantoni (68th)

Most convincingly, the French moved into the last four. In the 4-0 victory Just Fontaine was successful again, who scored goals two and three against Northern Ireland.