Player Testimonials & Benefit Matches

The Testimonial has been a traditional a reward for the loyalty of a player to a particular club, usually after 10 years of service. and set them up for their lives after football. Similarly, benefit matches were awarded to players who had their careers cut short by injury, or in even more tragic situations, to raise money for their families should their lives have been cut short. More recently these events have often been used to raise money for good causes as player's career earnings make their retirements potentially more comfortable.

Although many testimonial matches are treated as fairly normal friendly matches, others have brought together interesting "selects", old XIs or simply seen guests pull on the jersey of one of their rivals for a single celebratory match. 

More details to follow...

Date	Player	Team 1	Score	Team 2	Venue
1896/97	Jack Burnett	Glentoran	-	"off-field events"	-
04/01/1902	Sam Torrans	Linfield	-	Cliftonville	Solitude
26/12/1908	Johnny Darling	Linfield	0-0	Distillery	(raised almost £300)
xx/08/1909	Alfie Kearns	Distillery	2-0	Linfield	-
-	Bob Milne	-	-	-	(raised £113)
xx/xx/1923	Bill McCracken	Newcastle	-	-	-
04/01/1932 20/04/1932	Patsy Gallagher Billy Lacey	Celtic/Falkirk XI Shelbourne XI	- 1-2	Scottish League XI Liverpool	Celtic Park Dalymount Park
xx/05/1932	Johnny Geary	Glentoran	7-1	Dolphin	-
16/05/1932	Jack Mahood	Ireland Amat	3-4	Irish League	Celtic Park
28/08/1933	Tom "Ching" Morrison	Glentoran	1-1	Linfield	-
xx/04/1936	Jock McNinch	Ballymena U	-	Linfield	(first Ballymena player benefit)
06/05/1936	Billy McCleery	Linfield	1-3	Blackburn	-
23/09/1936	Willie Reid	Hearts	1-1	Chelsea	Tynecastle
28/09/1949	Charlie Webb	Arsenal	1-2	Portsmouth	Goldstone Ground
xx/xx/1952	Billy Smyth	Distillery	-	Select XI	Grosvenor Park
xx/05/1952	Cecil Moore	Glentoran	1-1	Luton Town	-
16/05/1952	Jimmy Dunne	Bohemians	-	Shamrock Rovers	Dalymount Park
19/05/1954	Wilbur Cush	Glenavon	-	Port Vale	Mourneview
xx/xx/1956	Harry McCormick	Coleraine	-	-	-
1956/57	Billy Neill/Sammy Hughes	Glentoran	-	Everton	-
1956/57	Tommy Hamill	Linfield	-	-	-
1958/1968?	Johnny Campbell	Belfast Celtic XI	-	-	Celtic Park
28/04/1975	Martin Harvey	Sunderland	3-2	Newcastle	Roker Park
30/05/1975	Dave Craig	Newcastle	5-3	Sunderland	St James' Park
20/10/1975	Derek Dougan	Wolves	0-0	Don Revie XI	Molineux
23/11/1976	Pat Jennings [1]	Spurs	3-2	Arsenal	White Hart Lane
23/05/1977	Bobby McGregor	Glentoran	1-1	NI XI	The Oval
22/11/1977	Pat Rice	Arsenal	1-3	Tottenham	Highbury
13/02/1979	Joe Bambrick	Linfield	-	dinner	-
xx/xx/1979	Peter Rafferty	Linfield	-	-	-
13/11/1979	Ronnie Blair	Oldham Ath	-	All-Ireland XI	Boundary Park
13/11/1979	Iam McFaul	Newcastle	-	Manchester C	St James' Park
25/11/1980	Sammy Nelson	Arsenal	0-0	Celtic	Highbury
09/09/1981	Jim Platt	Middlesbrough	1-2	Sunderland	Ayresome Park
03/11/1981	Allan Hunter	Ipswich Town	3-4	Celtic	Portman Road
23/11/1981	Sammy McIlroy	Manchester U	-	Man U 77 Cup Team	Old Trafford
17/05/1982	Noel Ward	Wigan Athletic	-	Chelsea	-
03/08/1983	Billy Drennan (Irish FA Secretary)	Manchester U	4-3	Liverpool	Windsor Park
20/03/1984	Johnny Jamison [1]	Glens/Crues XI	-	Irish League	The Oval
08/05/1985	Pat Jennings [2]	Arsenal	2-3	Tottenham	Highbury
12/05/1985	Johnny Jamison [2]	Linfield	-	Shamrock Rovers	Windsor Park
27/07/1985	Bryan Hamilton	Wigan Athletic	1-4	Everton	-
17/02/1986	George Dunlop	Linfield	-	George Best XI	Windsor Park
03/12/1986	Pat Jennings [3]	Pat Jennings XI	-	International XI	Windsor Park
20/01/1987	Roy Coyle [1]	Linfield	-	Tottenham	Windsor Park
11/03/1987	Billy Hamilton	Oxford United	-	NI XI	-
14/05/1987	Derek McKinley (NI team attendant) [1]	International XI	4-1	Portadown XI	Shamrock Park
01/08/1987	Billy Murray	Linfield	-	Shamrock Rovers	Windsor Park
08/08/1988	George Best	George Best XI	-	International XI	Windsor Park
10/08/1988	Terry Hayes	Linfield	-	St Patrick's Ath	Windsor Park
06/12/1988 13/12/1988	Alan Paterson Bernard McNally	Glentoran Shrewsbury XI	2-0 1-2	St Patrick's Ath Arsenal	The Oval Gay Meadow
15/05/1989 ??/??/1989	John O'Neill Paul Ramsey	Norwich City Leicester City	2-8 -	John O'Neill XI Spurs	Carrow Road Filbert Street
01/05/1990	Danny Blanchflower	Spurs	2-1	NI XI	White Hart Lane
08/05/1990	Liam Coyle	Derry City	-	Newcastle	Brandywell
11/05/1990	Alan McDonald [1]	QPR XI	-	Chelsea XI	Loftus Road
15/08/1990	Billy Caskey/Barney Bowers	Glentoran	-	Dundee Utd	The Oval
03/05/1992	Norman Whiteside	Manchester U	-	Everton	Old Trafford
xx/07/1993	Billy McAdams	Barrow	-	Manchester C	-
17/05/1994	Stephen McBride	Stevie McBride XI	-	Irish League	Mourneview
06/08/1994	Johnny Jameson	Glentoran	-	Derry City	The Oval
12/08/1994	Billy Bingham	NI XI	2-5	Newcastle	Windsor Park
20/04/1995 15/05/1995	Roy McDonald Colin O'Neill	Crusaders Motherwell	- -	Nottm Forest Ipswich T	Seaview Fir Park
06/05/1997 07/05/1997 27/07/1999	Ray McCoy Gary Fleming Robbie Dennison	Glenavon (Barnsley) All Stars Wolves	- 2-2 -	Crusaders Man. City Blackburn	Mourneview Oakwell Molineux
1999/2000	Noel Bailie	Linfield	-	-	-
29/07/2000	Stephen Beatty	Linfield	-	Rangers U21	Windsor Park
31/07/2000	Derek McKinley [2]	Portadown	-	Leicester City	Shamrock Park
13/11/2001	Sammy McIlroy	Macclesfield	1-2	NI XI	Moss Rose
01/08/2009	Glenn Ferguson	Linfield	1-3	Stockport Co	Windsor Park
2009/10	Jimmy McIlroy	Burnley	-	-	-
05/11/2011	Hunter Victor	Iam McFaul XI	2-3	Liam Beckett XI	Coleraine Showgrounds
xx/xx/2012	Derek McKinley [3]	-	-	-	-
15/05/2012	Harry Gregg	Manchester U	-	Irish League	Windsor Park
10/09/2012	Alan McDonald [2]	QPR XI	3-2	NI XI	Seaview
20/07/2013	Elliott Morris	Glentoran	0-2	Kilmarnock	The Oval
03/08/2013	Michael Gault	Linfield XI	7-4	Man Utd XI	Windsor Park
24/07/2015	Gerry McMahon	Glenavon	-	St Johnstone	Mourneview
01/08/2015	Michael Duff	Burnley	-	Bradford City	Turf Moor
03/09/2016	Jamie Mulgrew	Linfield	0-7	Rangers	Windsor Park
-	Roy Coyle [2]	Glentoran	-	“Farewell to a Legend”	-
06/08/2023	Tony Kane	Ballymena U.	2-0	Cliftonville	Showgrounds

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