Peter McParland. 1934-2025

[Villan For Life]

Incredibly sad news, RIP Sir

[aj2k77]

A true all time great for us.

[dave shelley]

Was Peter ever married and did he have a family.?  This is something I have never known.

He was married and I don't know how many children he gad but he said they were the reason he left Glentoran when the Troubles started.

Thanks Dave.

[dave.woodhall]

Was Peter ever married and did he have a family.?  This is something I have never known.

He was married and I don't know how many children he gad but he said they were the reason he left Glentoran when the Troubles started.

Thanks Dave.

"With his wife, Carol, McParland had two sons, Paul and Nicholas."

[dcdavecollett]

I recall when Villa were about to play third division football for the first time, they played Glentoran in a pre-season friendly. McParland warned Villa, after the game ended 0-0, that they should not feel sorry for themselves in their new, lower, league or else they might find themselves struggling against highly-committed opponents.

There was no chance of that happening with his former playing colleagues, Crowe and Wylie, in charge.

[Footy-Vill]

Nice to read about the memories, sad to hear the news.
It's clear McPharland will always be remembered in Villa history.
Prayers and thoughts go out to his family.

[rob_bridge]

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/football/northern-ireland/we-all-looked-up-to-peter-mcparland-pat-jennings-on-watching-1957-fa-cup-final-and-how-late-northern-ireland-legend-was-our-local-hero-5114768

A few words from the Genial Giant and fellow Newry man.

When someone as great as Pat has Peter as his hero, I'll take that.

[LeeB]

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/football/northern-ireland/we-all-looked-up-to-peter-mcparland-pat-jennings-on-watching-1957-fa-cup-final-and-how-late-northern-ireland-legend-was-our-local-hero-5114768

A few words from the Genial Giant and fellow Newry man.

When someone as great as Pat has Peter as his hero, I'll take that.

My grandad was from Newry, what a sporting legacy with those two.

[dave shelley]

There's a nice little coincidence with Bournemouth at home to Villa this weekend with Peter McParland being a Villa legend and Bournemouth resident.

[jwarry]

In The Times today….

Aston Villa player who also starred for Northern Ireland at the 1958 World Cup, dies aged 91
 
The Times
The 1957 FA Cup final was expected to be a procession for Manchester United. Matt Busby's brilliant “Babes” had already won the First Division and were heavy favourites to become the first team of the 20th century to win the league and cup double. In archive footage from Pathé News an old-fashioned voice reported breathlessly: “The Wembley pitch is like a palace lawn and it's perfect weather as Aston Villa in the striped shirts take the field with Manchester United, league champions and odds-on favourites to win that elusive double…”

Then a young Northern Irishman called Peter McParland rewrote the script in one of the most controversial moments in the long history of the competition. Disappointed to make poor contact with a header that bounced harmlessly into the arms of the United keeper Ray Wood, the young winger followed through in what he later described as a “fair shoulder charge”. Wood turned away at the last moment and McParland's head fractured Wood's jaw.

“Shoulder charges were in the game then,” recalled McParland, who was himself concussed. “The number of times I'd been belted by goalkeepers and had the wind knocked out of me … When I hit the deck, I got into a sitting position and 100,000 people were spinning. I'm laughing to myself, thinking, 'I'm finished here, they're going round in circles.'”
Wood was in a worse state. He was carried off and, given there
were no substitutes at the time, United's half back Jackie Blanchflower took over in goal. McParland played on but was booed every time he touched the ball. “I came into the dressing room at half-time and Bill Moore [Villa's assistantmanager] walked straight up to me and said, 'You can shut those people up, go out there and stick one in the back of the net.'”

McParland claimed that no keeper in the world would have saved his first goal from an inviting right-wing cross. “I got in between Duncan Edwards and Bill Foulkes and dived towards the ball with my head and Jackie Blanchflower didn't stand a chance.” He added a second by latching on to a rebound in the box and belting the ball into the top of the net.

On the final whistle, rather than celebrate with his team-mates McParland went over to console Wood, who had reappeared for the second half to play on the wing but was little more than a passenger. Wood assured McParland that his fractured jaw was an accident and he was not to blame. They would remain good friends until Wood's death in 2002, but the incident followed McParland. “When we got back to Villa Park with the cup there was a stack of mail waiting calling me every name in the book.” An unfailingly gracious and cheerful figure, McParland reckoned that over the decades he conducted some 400 media interviews about his challenge on Wood and was still receiving abuse from some United fans.

Yet some things are more important even than football. Nine months after the game, nothing about that day seemed to matter any more when McParland was stopped by a newspaper seller in Birmingham and told about the Munich Air Disaster that had left eight “Busby Babes” dead. McParland was a coffin bearer at the funeral of the great Duncan Edwards in Dudley.

Peter James McParland was born into a football-loving family in Newry, Northern Ireland, in 1934. Aged 15 he signed for Dundalk in Ireland, was put straight into the team and scored twice on his debut. That year he had a trial at Leeds United but returned home after one day because he felt homesick. He started an apprenticeship as a coppersmith for a railway company, but the scouts kept calling. Because his father had worked in Birmingham during the war and sent home reports on Aston Villa's games, they were the team that Peter supported. When Villa offered £3,880 to sign him in 1952 McParland's heart was set. He made his debut against Wolves later that same year aged 18.

A prototype of the modern inverted winger, McParland was tall with a powerful lolloping stride and cut inside from the left wing to score many goals with powerful shots using his favoured right foot. Jimmy Greaves rated him as “one of the most dangerous wingers I have ever seen, cutting through defences at tremendous speed and finishing with cannonball shots”.
A year after Villa's FA Cup win, McParland was part of the Northern Ireland team that went to the World Cup in Sweden, having secured a famous 2-1 victory over Italy in Belfast to qualify. With Harry Gregg in goal, Danny Blanchflower and Jimmy McIlroy orchestrating the play, and McParland and Billy Bingham on either side of the feisty centre forward Wilbur Cush, Northern Ireland won their first game against Czechoslovakia.

They were then, in McParland's estimation, “taken to the cleaners” in losing 3-1 to Argentina in the second group game. In the final group game not many gave them a chance of getting the result they needed against West Germany, the holders, until McParland's brace earned a 2-2 draw and a play-off against Czechoslovakia for a place in the quarter-final. First McParland scored from a rebound to leave the tie at 1-1 at the end of normal time. In extra time Blanchflower floated a free kick into the box and McParland connected with a close-range volley to send Northern Ireland through.
Weakened by injuries, Northern Ireland lost the quarter final to France 4-0, but returned home as heroes. Only France's Just Fontaine, Pelé and West Germany's Helmut Rahn scored more goals than McParland's five in the tournament.

Blanchflower, who would become a respected journalist and commentator on the game, later recalled: “Peter's inspirational play helped to put us on the world map. He was the finest ever inside forward in British football.”

The season after the World Cup, Villa were relegated from the First Division. McParland scored 22 goals as they were promoted back to the top flight at the first attempt in 1960. The next season he scored the winning goal for Villa in extra time to secure a 3-2 aggregate victory in the inaugural League Cup final. As such, McParland was the first player to score in the finals of both domestic cup competitions in English football.

After 341 games and 121 goals for Villa, he joined Wolves in January 1962 for £35,000. By then Stan Cullis's team was in decline. McParland scored ten goals in 21 games to stave off relegation, but in the 1963-63 season he lost his place in the team and was sold to Plymouth Argyle.

After a spell playing in Canada, he spent three years as player-manager of Glentoran in Northern Ireland, winning the league there in 1970 and securing a famous 1-0 win against Arsenal in the 1969 Intercity Fairs Cup. He later coached around the world. His job as the national coach of Libya ended in 1981 when Colonel Gaddafi summarily banned football. “Gaddafi just couldn't understand why only 22 people took part in a soccer match when thousands were standing around and watching. He thought everyone should take part,” McParland told The Sun.

He retired to Bournemouth with his wife Carol, with whom he had two sons, Paul and Nicholas, and would continue to attend Villa matches.
His only regret from the FA Cup final in 1957 was his £71 win bonus. “The marching band were on more than us, £100 a man.”

Peter McParland, footballer, was born on April
25, 1934. He died on May 4, 2025, aged 91

[JD]

That's a brilliant write up thank you for posting it jwarry.

[Crown Hill]

Usual inaccuracy about the charge though. It was Wood’s party trick to beckon on the forward and he made the first move towards McParland. He got injured because he loved his head at the last moment .

[dorsetvillian]

The Bournemouth Lions McParland was on display last night....

[ChicagoLion]

The Bournemouth Lions McParland was on display last night....

Got a picture?

[dorsetvillian]

It was on our Bournemouth Lions chat, will try to in out who took it..