Northern Ireland Players in the Community Shield

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The FA Community Shield is the curtain-raiser for the English domestic season, pitting together the previous campaign’s league champions and FA Cup winners.

The origins of the trophy lie in the Sheriff of London Shield, also known as the Dewar Shield after its benefactor, Sir Thomas Dewar, which was first played in 1898. It was an annual match between the leading professional side (the Football League champions or FA Cup winners) and amateur side of the time (usually Corinthians). Proceeds from the match were donated to local charities and hospitals.

Norman Whiteside's 1983
winner's shield

In 1908, following a schism between the Football Association and the Amateur Football Association, the FA Charity Shield was founded as a replacement. Initially the match pitted the Football League champions against the Southern League Champions, but the format varied throughout the years until settling down to the current format of League Champions verses FA Cup winners at Wembley Stadium in the 1970s.

In 2002 the competition was re-named as the FA Community Shield following an investigation from the Charity Commission over how the proceeds were handled and distributed to good causes.

Through to the 1990s the trophy was generally shared if the match was drawn, but the winner is now settled with penalty shoot-out should scores be level after normal play.

(Northern) Ireland Players in the…

SHERIFF OF LONDON CHARITY SHIELD

Year	Player	Club	W	S	L	Notes
1907	McCracken, Bill	Newcastle U.	x			T1892

Sources disagree as the whether McCracken actually played in this match

FA CHARITY SHIELD

Year	Player	Club	W	S	L	Notes
1909	McCracken, Bill	Newcastle U.	x
1911	Hamill, Mickey	Man. Utd	x
1922	Lacey, Billy	Liverpool			x	LFCH
1922	Scott, Elisha	Liverpool			x
1927	Farquharson, Tom	Cardiff City	x
1927	Irving, Sam	Cardiff City	x
1933	Cook, Billy	Everton			x
1935	Dunne, Jimmy	Arsenal			x
1937	Doherty, Peter	Man. City	x			1 goal
1948	Carey, Johnny	Man. Utd			x
1949	Smyth, Sammy	Wolves		x
1951	McMichael, Alfie	Newcastle U.			x
1952	Carey, Johnny	Man. Utd	x
1952	Casey, Tommy	Newcastle U.			x
1954	Ryan, Reg	West Brom.		x		1 goal
1955	Casey, Tommy	Newcastle U.			x
1955	McMichael, Alfie	Newcastle U.			x	OG
1957	Blanchflower, Jackie	Man. Utd	x
1957	McParland, Peter	Aston Villa			x
1960	Elder, Alex	Burnley		x
1960	McIlroy, Jimmy	Burnley		x
1961	Blanchflower, Danny	Tottenham	x
1962	Blanchflower, Danny	Tottenham	x
1965	Best, George	Man. Utd		x		1 goal
1967	Best, George	Man. Utd		x
1967	Jennings, Pat	Tottenham		x		1 goal
1972	Nicholl, Chris	Aston Villa			x
1977	McCreery, Dave	Man. Utd		x		sub
1977	McIlroy, Sammy	Man. Utd		x
1977	Nicholl, Jimmy	Man. Utd		x
1978	O'Neill, Martin	N'm Forest	x			2 goals
1979	Jennings, Pat	Arsenal			x
1979	Nelson, Sammy	Arsenal			x
1979	Rice, Pat	Arsenal			x
1983	Whiteside, Norman	Man. Utd	x
1984	Whiteside, Norman	Man. Utd			x
1988	Sanchez, Lawrie	Wimbledon			x
1990	Donaghy, Mal	Man. Utd		x
1996	Gillespie, Keith	Newcastle U.			x	sub

FA COMMUNITY SHIELD

Year	Player	Club	W	S	L	Notes
2009	Evans, Jonny	Man. Utd			x
2010	Evans, Jonny	Man. Utd	x
2011 2024	Evans, Jonny Evans, Jonny	Man. Utd Man. Utd	x -	- -	- x	sub (missed pen in shoot-out)

SHERIFF OF LONDON SHIELD REVIVALS

The Sheriff of London Shield did re-appear on the fixture list several times for spells in the 1930s, 1960s and finally in 1983. The 1930s revival supported the National Playing Fields Association while the latter editions acted as fundraisers for Corinthian-Casuals. These matches were not held in the same esteem as the trophy’s earlier incarnation, and in the final edition Watford played in retro-style jerseys. The huge trophy was sold in the 1990s to raise further funds for Corinthian-Casuals.

Year	Player	Club	W	S	L	Notes
1964	Clarke, Fred	Arsenal	x			AH
1965	Magill, Jimmy	Arsenal	x
1983	Rice, Pat	Watford	x			OW

1983 Sheriff of London Shield winners Watford (Old Watford)
Pat Rice is fourth from left in the back row wearing a fake moustache

KEY

• W - Won
• S - Shared for six months
• L - Lost

PLAYER RECORDS

• Most Appearances - 4 Jonny Evans (2009, 2010, 2011) [plus two as non-playing sub]
• Most Wins - 2 Bill McCracken [disputed] (1907 [SoL], 1909), Danny Blanchflower (1961, 1962), George Best (1965, 1967 [both shared]), Jonny Evans (2010, 2011 [plus two as non-playing sub])
• Most Goals - 2 Martin O’Neill (1978)
• Most Players in a match - 3 1977 (Jimmy Nicholl, Sammy McIlroy, Dave McCreery [Manchester United]), 1979 (Pat Jennings, Pat Rice, Sammy Nelson [Arsenal])

Jonny Evans with the Community
Shield in 2013 when he was an unused sub
as Manchester United defeated Wigan

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

One of the oddities of the Charity Shield is that, given it's status as a friendly, it allowed for substitutes long before competitive football did. Further, come the 1970s there was a European style bench, with up to five substitutes. As first-team squads were much smaller at the time this allowed some young fringe players to gain the Wembley experience, even if they didn't make it on to the playing field.

• Steve Morrow (Arsenal) 1989 L
• Jim Magilton (Liverpool) 1990 S
• Keith Gillespie (Man U) 1994 W
• Roy Carroll (Man U) 2001 L, 2003 W, 2004 L
• Jonny Evans (Man U) 2008 W, 2013 W

LINKS

• Sheriff of London Charity Shield on Wikipedia
• FA Community Shield on Wikipedia
• Community Shield on Football Site