333: 16 May 1980

John O'Neill

Name: John Patrick O’Neill
Born: 11 March 1958, Londonderry
Height: 5.11¾ ft
Weight: 13.03 st
Position: Centre-Back

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 39 Full Caps / 2 Goals (1980-1986), 1 Under-21 Cap (1978).
Club Honours: (with Leicester) Football League Division Two Champion 1979/80, Third (promoted) 1982/83.

Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA.Cup	FL.Cup	Europe	Other
Derry Athletic		-	Youth	-	-	-	-	-
Leicester	76/77-86/87	1976	N/C	313/10	19/1	13/1	-	-
Q.P.R.	87/88	Jul-87	£150k	2/ 0	-	-	-	-
Norwich	87/88	Dec-87	£-	1/ 0	-	-	-	-
TOTALS		£-		316/10	19/1	13/1	0/0	0/0

Biography:
To follow.

Football Heroes
Flown The Nest

Northern Ireland Cap Details:
26-03-80 Israel.... a 0-0 WCQ
17-05-80 Scotland.. h 1-0 BC
20-05-80 England... a 1-1 BC
23-05-80 Wales..... a 1-0 BC
11-06-80 Australia. a 2-1 FR 1 Goal
15-06-80 Australia. a 1-1 FR
18-06-80 Australia. a 2-1 FR
19-11-80 Portugal.. a 0-1 WCQ
25-03-81 Scotland.. a 1-1 WCQ
29-04-81 Portugal.. h 1-0 WCQ
19-05-81 Scotland.. a 0-2 BC
03-06-81 Sweden.... a 0-1 WCQ
14-10-81 Scotland.. h 0-0 WCQ
18-11-81 Israel.... h 1-0 WCQ
23-02-82 England... a 0-4 BC
24-03-82 France.... a 0-4 FR
28-04-82 Scotland.. h 1-1 BC
04-07-82 France.... n 1-4 WCF sub
13-10-82 Austria... a 0-2 ECQ
17-11-82 W. Germany h 1-0 ECQ
15-12-82 Albania... a 0-0 ECQ
30-03-83 Turkey.... h 2-1 ECQ
27-04-83 Albania... h 1-0 ECQ
24-05-83 Scotland.. a 0-0 HC
13-12-83 Scotland.. h 2-0 HC sub
16-10-84 Israel.... h 3-0 FR
14-11-84 Finland... h 2-1 WCQ 1 Goal
27-02-85 England... h 0-1 WCQ
27-03-85 Spain..... a 0-0 FR
01-05-85 Turkey.... h 2-0 WCQ
11-09-85 Turkey.... a 0-0 WCQ
16-10-85 Romania... a 1-0 WCQ
13-11-85 England... a 0-0 WCQ
26-02-86 France.... a 0-0 FR
26-03-86 Denmark... h 1-1 FR
23-04-86 Morocco... h 2-1 FR
03-06-86 Algeria... n 1-1 WCF
07-06-86 Spain..... n 1-2 WCF
12-06-86 Brazil.... n 0-3 WCF

Summary: 37(2)/2. Won 15, Drew 14, Lost 10.

Eric McManus

Name: Charles Eric McManus
Born: 14 November 1950, Limavady
Height: 6.01 ft
Weight: 12.12 st
Position: Goalkeeper

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 2 Amateur Caps (1968), 3 Schoolboy Caps (1966).
Club Honours: (with Coleraine) North West Cup Winner; (with Bradford) Football League Division Three Champion 1984/85.

Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Euro	Other
Coleraine		-	Amateur	-	-	-	-	-
Coventry	69/70-71/72	Aug-68	-	6/0	-	-	1/0	-
Notts Co.	71/72-78/79	Apr-71	-	229/0	9/0	13/0	-	14/0
Stoke C.	79/80-81/82	Oct-79	-	4/0	-	-	-	-
Lincoln C.	79/80	Dec-79	Loan	21/0	-	-	-	-
Bradford C.	82/83-85/86	Aug-82	-	113/0	9/0	12/0	-	5/0
Middlesbro'	85/86	Jan-86	Loan	2/0	-	-	-	-
Peterboro’	85/86	Mar-86	Loan	18/0	-	-	-	-
Tranmere	86/87	Aug-86	-	3/0	-	2/0	-	-
Boston U.	86/87	Sep-86	-	9/0	(Football Conference)			1/0
TOTALS		£-		405/0	18/0	27/0	1/0	20/0

Biography:
For a player who spent a large portion of his career plying his trade in the top two divisions of English football not to win a cap for Northern Ireland would normally seem quite surprising. However, the qualifier on this is that Eric McManus was unfortunate to be a goalkeeper, and the players who kept him out of the Northern Ireland team - Pat Jennings, Iam McFaul and Jim Platt - were some of the most outstanding 'keepers of their generation. As such, McManus was little more than an occasional squad member through the late-seventies and early-eighties.

Having won amateur caps while with Coleraine, Eric McManus arrived in the Football League as a teenager with Coventry City. He spent three seasons at Highfield Road, competing with Bill Glazier and David Icke for the number one jersey, but found his chances limited. One of his few appearances in the Coventry first-team was in torrential rain against Bayern Munich in the 1970/71 Fairs Cup. He "could do no right" and ended up on the end of a 6-1 hammering, the heaviest defeat ever suffered by an English club in Europe. It was during this time that he was included in the Northern Ireland Under-23 team for a match against Wales at Wrexham only to be denied a cap as the game was cancelled due to bad weather.

In the spring of 1972 he moved on to Notts County, and within two seasons he had established himself in the first-team. In 1975/76 as Notts County reached the last eight of the League Cup, he suffered the embarrassment of scoring an own goal in the 1-0 defeat by Newcastle. Malcolm McDonald took a long throw which a number of players failed to get their heads to, and the ball sailed into the net as McManus tried to get a hand on it. McManus insisted he hadn't touched it, not forgetting that a goal cannot be scored direct from a throw-in, but the referee believed there had been contact and the goal stood.

McManus' first senior call-up finally arrived in 1977 when he was included in the Northern Ireland squad for a match against West Germany in Cologne. He received several further call-ups in the years that followed when Pat Jennings or Jim Platt were unavailable. In 1979 McManus moved on to Stoke City, then playing in the top flight. Unfortunately he failed to establish himself, and in three seasons at the Victoria Ground he made just four League appearances. Perhaps if he had been featuring more regularly for Stoke he would have been part of the squad that travelled to Spain for the World Cup, but instead Billy Bingham selected Linfield's George Dunlop as Northern Ireland's third goalkeeper.
..
In 1982 he moved on again, this time to a Bradford City side freshly promoted from Division Four. In 1985 he was part of the team that stormed to the Division Three title, and he was in goal on the 11th May 1985, as Bradford where presented with the trophy at Valley Parade. That day was to become one of the most tragic in English football, as a fire engulfed one of the stands, claiming the lives of 56 people.

McManus left Bradford the following season, finishing his playing career with brief spells at Middlesbrough, Peterborough, Tranmere and Boston United in the GM Vauxhall Conference.

On retirement from playing McManus moved into coaching, working as Director of Recruitment with Derby County. He also had a spell coaching with Bromsgrove Rovers, and in 2000 acted as caretaker manager, alongside his role with Derby. Until October 2008 he was on the staff at Walsall, variously fulfilling roles as goalkeeping coach, reserve-team manager and Youth Recruitment Officer.

Northern Ireland Amateur Cap Details:
16-03-1968 Scotland A W 2-0
11-05-1968 Wales... H L 0-1

Summary: 2/0. Won 1, Drew 9, Lost 1.

David McCreery

‘Wee Dee’ McCreery was a bundle of energy in the Northern Ireland midfield for a decade-and-a-half…

Name: David McCreery
Born: 16 September 1957, Belfast
Height: 5.07 ft
Weight: 10.07 st
Position: Forward/Midfielder

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 67 Full Caps (1976-1990), 1 Under-21 Cap (1978), Youth, 4 Schoolboy Caps (1973).
Club Honours: (with Man. United) FA Cup Winner 1976/77, Runner-Up 1975/76; (with Newcastle) Football League Division Two Third (promoted) 1983/84.


Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA.Cup	FL.Cup	Europe	Other
Ashfield Boys Club		-	Youth	-	-	-	-	-
Manchester United	74/75-78/79	Oct-74	Youth	48(39)/ 7	1(6)/0	4(4)/1	4(3)/0	0(1)/0
Q.P.R.	79/80-80/81	Aug-79	£200k	56 (1)/ 4	1(1)/0	8(0)/1	-	-
Tulsa Roughnecks	1981 - 1982	Mar-81	£125k	50 (-)/ 0	(NASL)	-	-	-
Newcastle United	82/83-88/89	Oct-82	£80k	237 (6)/ 2	10(1)/0	15(0)/0	-	3(0)/0
Tulsa Renegades	1989	-	-	(Southwest Indoor Soccer League)
GIF Sundsvall	1989	-	-	(Sweden)
Heart.of.Midlothian	89/90-90/91	Sep-89	Free	24 (5)/ 0	3(0)/0	3(0)/0	1(0)/0	-
Hartlepool United	91/92	Apr-91	Free	27 (3)/ 0	3(0)/0	2(1)/0	-	-
Coleraine	92/93	Sep-92	Free	1 (0)/ 0	-	-	-	3(0)/0
Carlisle United	92/93-93/94	Sep-92	Free	25(10)/ 0	3(0)/0	0(1)/0	-	1(0)/0
Hartlepool United	94/95	Oct-94	Free	7 (2)/ 0	1(0)/0	-	-	-
TOTALS	-	£405k		475(66)/13	22(8)/0	32(6)/2	5(3)/0	7(1)/0

Appearances/Goals by Competition:
Football League Division One. 222(40)/ 9
Football League Division Two. 119 (6)/ 4
Football League Division Three 59(15)/ 0
FA Cup........................ 19 (8)/ 0
Football League Cup........... 29 (6)/ 2
FA Charity Shield ............. 0 (1)/ 0
FL Centenary Trophy............ 2 (0)/ 0
FL Full Member Cup............. 1 (0)/ 0
FL Associate Member Cup........ 1 (0)/ 0
Scottish Premier League ...... 24 (5)/ 0
Scottish Cup................... 3 (0)/ 0
Scottish League Cup ........... 3 (0)/ 0
Irish League................... 1 (0)/ 0
Gold Cup ...................... 2 (0)/ 0
Irish League Floodlit Cup...... 1 (0)/ 0
UEFA Cup....................... 2 (3)/ 0
European Cup Winners' Cup...... 3 (0)/ 0
NASL.......................... 50 (-)/ 0
Totals....................... 541(84)/15

Biography:
In February 2011 David McCreery was appointed Technical Director at Magway FC in Burma. In July 2012 he became coach at Sabah in Malaysia. He resigned for personal reasons the following June.

More to follow.

Wikipedia

Northern Ireland Cap Details:
08-05-1976 Scotland.... H L 0-3 BC sub
11-05-1976 England..... A L 0-4 BC
14-05-1976 Wales....... A L 0-1 BC
13-10-1976 Netherlands. A D 2-2 WCQ
10-11-1976 Belgium..... A L 0-2 WCQ
27-04-1977 West Germany A L 0-5 FR
28-05-1977 England..... H L 1-2 BC
01-06-1977 Scotland.... A L 0-2 BC
03-06-1977 Wales....... H D 1-1 BC
11-06-1977 Iceland..... A L 0-1 WCQ
21-09-1977 Iceland..... H W 2-0 WCQ
12-10-1977 Netherlands. H L 0-1 WCQ
16-11-1977 Belgium..... H W 3-0 WCQ
13-05-1978 Scotland.... A D 1-1 BC
16-05-1978 England..... A L 0-1 BC
19-05-1978 Wales....... A L 0-1 BC
20-09-1978 Rep. Ireland A D 0-0 ECQ
25-10-1978 Denmark..... H W 2-1 ECQ
29-11-1978 Bulgaria.... A W 2-0 ECQ
07-02-1979 England..... A L 0-4 ECQ
02-05-1979 Bulgaria.... H W 2-0 ECQ
25-05-1979 Wales....... H D 1-1 BC
06-06-1979 Denmark..... A L 0-4 ECQ
17-10-1979 England..... H L 1-5 ECQ
21-11-1979 Rep. Ireland H W 1-0 ECQ
16-05-1980 Scotland.... H W 1-0 BC sub
20-05-1980 England..... A D 1-1 BC sub
23-05-1980 Wales....... A W 1-0 BC sub
11-06-1980 AustraliA... A W 2-1 FR sub
15-06-1980 Australia... A D 1-1 FR
15-10-1980 Sweden...... H W 3-0 WCQ sub
19-11-1980 Portugal.... A L 0-1 WCQ sub
25-03-1981 Scotland.... A D 1-1 WCQ
29-04-1981 Portugal.... H W 1-0 WCQ
03-06-1981 Sweden...... A L 0-1 WCQ
14-10-1981 Scotland.... H D 0-0 WCQ
18-11-1981 Israel...... H W 1-0 WCQ
23-02-1982 England..... A L 0-4 BC sub
24-03-1982 France...... A L 0-4 FR
17-06-1982 Yugoslavia.. N D 0-0 WCF
21-06-1982 Honduras.... N D 1-1 WCF
25-06-1982 Spain....... N W 1-0 WCF
01-07-1982 Austria..... N D 2-2 WCF
04-07-1982 France...... N L 1-4 WCF
13-10-1982 Austria..... A L 0-2 ECQ
12-10-1983 Turkey...... A L 0-1 ECQ sub
12-09-1984 Romania..... H W 3-2 WCQ
27-03-1985 Spain....... A D 0-0 FR sub
11-09-1985 Turkey...... A D 0-0 WCQ sub
16-10-1985 Romania..... A W 1-0 WCQ
13-11-1985 England..... A D 0-0 WCQ
26-02-1986 France...... A D 0-0 FR
26-03-1986 Denmark..... H D 1-1 FR
03-06-1986 Algeria..... N D 1-1 WCF
07-06-1986 Spain....... N L 1-2 WCF
12-06-1986 Brazil...... N L 0-3 WCF
12-11-1986 Turkey...... A D 0-0 ECQ
01-04-1987 England..... H L 0-2 ECQ
29-04-1987 Yugoslavia.. H L 1-2 ECQ
14-10-1987 Yugoslavia.. A L 0-3 ECQ
21-12-1988 Spain....... A L 0-4 WCQ
26-04-1989 Malta....... A W 2-0 WCQ
26-05-1989 Chile....... H L 0-1 FR
06-09-1989 Hungary..... H L 1-2 WCQ
11-10-1989 Rep. Ireland A L 0-3 WCQ
27-03-1990 Norway...... H L 2-3 FR
18-05-1990 Uruguay..... H W 1-0 FR sub

Summary: 55(12)/0. Won 17, Drew 19, Lost 31.

Appearances/Record by Competition:
Competition.......... Apps/Gl .W - D - L
British Championship. 9 (5)/0 .2 - 4 - 8
World Cup Qualifiers 18 (3)/0 .8 - 5 - 8
World Cup Finals..... 8 (0)/0 .1 - 4 - 3
Euro Qualifiers..... 13 (1)/0 .4 - 2 - 8
Friendlies........... 7 (3)/0 .2 - 4 - 4
Totals.............. 55(12)/0 17 -19 -31

Northern Ireland Under-21 Cap Details:
08-03-1978 Rep. Ireland A D 1-1 FR

Summary: 1/0. Won 0, Drew 1, Lost 0.

Record as captain:

Span	First Match	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	.GD.	Win %	Pts %	W/L
1987	14/10/87	1	0	0	1	0	3	-3	0.0%	0.0%	-1