Peter McParland was one of the all-time greats of Northern Ireland football, who also made his mark in English League football with Aston Villa.
The County Down native, who died on Sunday aged 91, is his country’s record goalscorer at World Cup finals, having scored five in Sweden in 1958.
He was the last surviving member of that Northern Ireland 1958 World Cup squad, which reached the quarter-final stage.
McParland won both FA Cup and League Cup winners’ medals with Villa.
He holds a unique place in English football history as the first player in the game to score in and win both English major domestic knockout finals.
Born in Newry, McParland was spotted playing for Dundalk in the League of Ireland by Aston Villa manager George Martin, who signed him for a fee in the region of £3,500.
The outside left spent the majority of his career at the Midlands club, while his international career spanned nine years from 1954-62.
A fine header and striker of the ball, he is regarded as one of the greatest players to represent both Aston Villa and Northern Ireland.
He scored twice in the FA Cup final against Manchester United in 1957 but also became involved in a controversial incident in which he shoulder-charged (at the time a legitimate form of challenge) the United keeper Ray Wood after only six minutes, leaving him unconscious with a broken cheekbone.
McParland’s goals were remembered as examples of his all-round abilities as a player, showcasing his diving header and volleying techniques.
He scored 22 league goals to help Villa win the Second Division title in 1960 and then won a League Cup winners’ medal in 1961.
The Northern Irishman was on the scoresheet for the second leg of the 1961 League Cup final, when Villa overturned a 2-0 deficit against Rotherham United to win the second encounter between the sides 3-0 at Villa Park and become the winners of the first Football League Cup, McParland’s extra-time winner proving decisive.
He subsequently joined Wolverhampton Wanderers for £35,000 in January 1962, scoring 10 goals in 21 games during his one season with the club.
His final English League club was Plymouth Argyle, followed by a spell with non-league Worcester City, but in 1965 he was recruited to play for Inter-Roma FC of the Eastern Canadian Professional Soccer League and then turned out for Atlanta Chiefs of the North American Soccer League in 1967 and 1968.
McParland won the NPSL Championship with the Chiefs in 1967.
He ended his career as player-manager of Irish League club Glentoran, where he spent three seasons, including a league championship success in 1970.
On the international stage, McParland scored 10 goals in 34 appearances, including those five goals at Sweden ’58 to help propel his team into the quarter-finals, where a team by then decimated by injuries lost 4-0 to France.
His impressive haul at the finals included one goal in a 3-1 win over Argentina, two in a 2-2 draw with West Germany and another couple in a 2-1 success against Czechoslovakia.
His Northern Ireland career had begun in style as the then 19-year-old bagged a double on his debut in a World Cup qualifying win over Wales in Wrexham in the 1953-54 season.
Following Billy Bingham’s death in 2022, he became the last surviving member of the Northern Ireland squad from that memorable 1958 campaign.
Related topics
- Northern Ireland Men’s Football Team
- Aston Villa
- Northern Ireland Sport
- Football
- Irish Football
