‘All our success has been built on failure, really. We are the greatest moral victors in the world. When we get defeated it’s a moral victory for us. We try to change it into one.
‘This was one of the black spots when we sort of defeated ourselves by winning.’
Those comments from the legendary Danny Blanchflower, made with his usual dry, sardonic wit during an episode of ‘Desert Island Discs’, actually referred to the shock 3-2 Home International victory over England at Wembley in November 1957.
Yet that assessment could have applied equally to the unforgettable win over Italy at Windsor Park in mid-January 1958, which sent Northern Ireland to its first ever World Cup.
In so doing, the men in green also denied Italy participation at the global tournament for the first time in its illustrious history.
The story of how a team representing only around 1.25 million people deservedly overcame the mighty Italy, at that time the only back-to-back winners of the World Cup, is worthy of a movie.
Elements in the tale, which takes in three games against Italy among others, include ‘Mr Bean’ (Italian player Gastone Bean), ‘The Gladiator’ – Italy captain Rino Ferrario – and ‘The Fog’, which turned the initial planned qualifier in Belfast in early December 1957 into a ‘not-so-friendly’.
Luckily, Evan Marshall, who wrote the brilliant book ‘Spirit of ‘58’ by to which this article is heavily indebted, did oversee a documentary film of the same name, which is well worth seeking out.
The Northern Ireland team which lined out in the only senior win – so far – against Italy, 2-1 in January 1958; left to right:
(Left to right) Danny Blanchflower, Willie Cunningham, Jackie Blanchflower, Billy Bingham, Norman Uprichard, Jimmy McIlroy, Bertie Peacock, Wilbur Cush, Billy Simpson, Peter McParland, and Alfie McMichael.
On Thursday night Michael O’Neill’s men aim to extend the Azzurri’s losing streak in World Cup play-offs to a barely believable third consecutive such setback.
The visitors aren’t close to the high standard of then manager Peter Doherty’s squad, especially without two of their few top flight players as Liverpool’s Conor Bradley and Sunderland centre-back Daniel Ballard both miss out through injury.
However, the Italians aren’t at the level of their late Fifties side either.
Home advantage is with Gennaro Gattuso’s players, but with that comes added pressure.
Memories of failures on Italian soil too, against Sweden and North Macedonia, in 2018 and 2022 respectively.
No doubt, though, Italy will still prefer to host this play-off semi-final rather than be in Belfast, scene of the infamous ‘Battle of Windsor’.
That wasn’t the match which NI eventually won, but a literally hard-fought (in a pub car park style) 2-2 draw which really didn’t deserve the description of a ‘friendly’.
That game was supposed to be a competitive contest, a World Cup qualifier in the three-team group which also included a fine Portugal outfit.
Moment of Drama in Northern Ireland’s 3-2 win over England at Wembley in 1957 featuring three Manchester United stars – Harry Gregg, covered by Jackie Blanchflower, punches a Tommy Taylor header clear. Picture by Pacemaker
Fog intervened though, preventing the refereeing team from Hungary reaching Belfast, despite four different flights getting them as far as England.
Efforts to allow the game to go ahead as an official qualifier with an English referee were, understandably, rebuffed by the Italians.
Fittingly the man suggested for that role was Arthur Ellis, who went on to wider fame as a ‘referee’ for ‘It’s a Knockout’; on that foggy December afternoon at Windsor Park, though, that last word was the key one, with much more boxing rather than European harmony on show.
Two referees couldn’t have controlled this, so poor local official Tommy Mitchell from Lurgan had no chance.
The Italian players were incensed by what they heard as the crowd booing their national anthem.
In fact, it seems the spectators were voicing their annoyance at the very, very late announcement that this was to be a friendly, not the real thing.
The game soon became what WWE would be if it were genuine.
Pat Jennings and Billy Bingham
Even the normally politely-spoken Billy Bingham later recalled: ‘We were kicking the shit out of each other’.
Little Wilbur Cush, a human ‘pocket battleship’ who could have been made at the nearby Harland & Wolff shipyards, had his shin-pad broken by Juan Alberto Schiaffino, with the stuffing starting to come out of that protective aid.
Bingham acknowledged that the hosts gave as good as they got, perhaps more, on the basis of ‘Don’t kick me or I’ll kick you twice’.
There were also verbals, punches, and off-the-ball kicks.
Italian skipper Ferrario launched himself two-footed through the air towards Bingham and Jimmy McIlroy, accompanied by an ear-splitting yell, as his side defended a corner – but was not sent off!
Only when another Italian, right-half Giuseppe Chiapella, repeated that kung fu kick trick, running 20 yards to target burly winger Peter McParland, did Mitchell show his red card.
The oblivious McParland, who thought he was walking away from trouble after one of his trademark shoulder charges on the Italian goalkeeper, was only saved from serious injury by team-mate Billy McAdams intervening and taking the studding himself.
The incensed home crowd invaded the pitch and attacked the Italian team after the final whistle, despite NI players trying to protect them; Ferrario, to his credit, did fell and pummel one assailant.
Oh, the result? 2-2, Alcides Ghiggia and Miguel Angel Montuori goals were each cancelled out by two strikes from Cush, back in his normal inside-forward having filled in at centre-back in the unfortunate 1-0 loss in the qualifier which took place in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome the previous April.
The only goal then had come from a quickly taken free kick, sneakily taken yards away from the correct spot by Italy left-back Sergio Cervato, shooting past a helpless Harry Gregg, who was no longer protected by a defensive wall.
Northern Ireland had played well enough in the Italian capital to merit a draw, but after that defeat and subsequent results they knew they needed victory over Italy to have any chance of topping the group.
The weather put paid to those hopes, for six weeks anyway, but the ‘game’ which did take place threatened to remove NI’s home advantage.
The fall-out from the violent scenes which ensued, both during the match and after it as the players left the pitch, were far-reaching.
For one thing, the attache to the Eire Legation in Rome, in seeking to distance his country from Italian ire, appeared to give up the territorial claim to ‘the six counties’, the ‘fourth green field’, with a stark, shocking statement:
‘Belfast has no political connection with us. It is the principal city of Northern Ireland, which is part of Britain.
‘The team which played against Italy represented only Northern Ireland, and not the Republic of Ireland.’
The outrage from Italians was like many of the challenges, unfair and way over-the-top, with their football press raging and raving. ‘Gazzetta del Popolo’ labelled the match ‘the most disgusting ever recorded in football history’.
Yet in less than six years’ time Italy would be involved in much worse, another ‘Battle of…’, the gory ‘Battle of Santiago’ against hosts Chile at the 1962 World Cup.
In fairness criticism within Northern Ireland was harsh too. The never knowingly understated Malcolm Brodie did declare in ‘Ireland’s Saturday Night’ that:
‘Ireland’s reputation tonight stands at zero throughout the world following those disgraceful scenes at the end of Wednesday’s match with Italy. Now comes the task of rebuilding it from the debris of that disastrous day.’
The reconstruction was not only rapid but remarkable.
The re-fixture was a triumph for the years of work Doherty had done in transforming Northern Ireland from Home International whipping boys into a terrific team.
Not only did they deservedly defeat Italy, they went on to draw with World Cup-holders West Germany at the finals tournament in Sweden. Doherty’s dynamos also beat Czechoslovakia not once but twice, the second time in a play-off to progress to the quarter-finals.
England did not reach that last eight, nor Scotland, although a fine Wales team made it there too, also via a play-off. The Dragons saw off the team which really should have been the 1954 World Cup winners, Hungary, who had been stunned by West Germany in ‘The Miracle of Bern’.
The reaction in ‘La Gazzetta dello Sport’ to Italy failing to reach the World Cup for the first time ever due to defeat by Northern Ireland in January 1958.
Northern Ireland’s win over Italy deserved a similar label.
NI might have responded to those comments from the Eire attache in Rome that ‘the team which played against Northern Ireland represented not only Italy but also Argentina and Uruguay.’
The team in green had faced not just Italians, but also two Uruguayans and an Argentinian.
The Italian coach Alfredo Foni was a World Cup-winner (from 1938) – and so two were the pair from Uruguay.
Indeed Schiaffino and Ghiggia had scored the goals which traumatised hosts Brazil to win the final game of the 1950 tournament 2-1, when a draw would have handed the home side the trophy in a Maracana stadium packed with 200,000 people.
Italy also selected former Argentina international, Miguel Angel Montuori, one of the many foreign-born ‘oriundi’ involved in Italian football, for clubs and country.
Having said that, NI had some top class players too.
Danny Blanchflower (third from left) celebrates Tottenham Hotspur’s 1962 FA Cup final victory over Burnley at Wembley with team-mates Bill Brown, Jimmy Greaves, Dave Mackay, John White, Cliff Jones, and Terry Medwin. (PA/PA)
Danny Blanchflower, Jimmy McIlroy of Burnley, and Celtic’s Bertie Peacock were all intelligent passers of the ball.
The wingers, future manager Bingham and future World Cup goalscoring hero Peter McParland, were effective in their different ways.
The other Blanchflower brother, Jackie, was at the best team in England, Manchester United, as was goalkeeper Harry Gregg – who also happened to be the most expensive goalkeeper in the world at that time after the Red Devils signed him from Doherty’s Doncaster Rovers.
Unfortunately, like the Hungarian match officials, Gregg missed the match due to the heavy fog, although Norman ‘Black Jake’ Uprichard was a more than able deputy for the Tobermore native.
The smallest man of all in green was one of the most important – the mighty Wilbur Cush.
Italy augmented their South American contingent by bringing in Brazilian Dino da Costa, replacing playmaker Guido Gratton, who was running a fever. That meant only one Italian-born player in the five-man visiting forward line; Da Costa lined out on the left wing with Montuori taking the blue number 10 jersey.
It was his opposite number in green, though, the classy McIlroy, who opened the scoring in an unexpected manner, belting in a screamer from outside the box.
Wee Wilbur then doubled the home lead from a superb defence-splitting pass by Danny Blanchflower, following up after goalkeeper Bugatti parried his initial effort, driving the ball high to the net.
Uprichard had to earn his £50 match fee after that – and he prevented the Italians from receiving a bonus said to be set at anything from £500 to £800 if they secured qualification with a draw.
The visitors did halve their deficit in the second half, when Uprichard, after a cross from (the Argentinian) Montiuori, fumbled the ball and (the Brazilian) Da Costa, poked a close range shot into the home goal.
However, midway through the second half the hosts were boosted when the referee – that persistent Hungarian Istvan Zsolt – showed a red card to (the Uruguayan) Ghiggia for flicking a petulant heel into full-back Alf McMichael.
Hungarian referee Istvan Zsolt sends off Italy’s Ghiggia (pictured left), despite the please of Northern Ireland left-back Alf McMichael (3). (imago stock&people/imago stock&people)
In those days that barely merited a booking and indeed McMichael almost earned himself a caution by pleading with the ref to reverse his decision – but off went Uruguay’s hero of 1950.
Chances came and went at both ends, although a third home goal appeared more likely. Italian right-half Giovanni Invernizzi survived a penalty claim for an apparent handball, centre-forward Billy Simpson netted only to be denied by a marginal offside call, and he, McIlroy, and McParland all forced Bugatti to pull off some excellent saves late on.
This time the Italian media praised NI (before burying their own team), with ‘Il Messaggero’ declaring that the Azzurri had been ‘roasted like thrushes on the Irish spit’.
Beating Italy is almost beyond a ‘once in a lifetime’ achievement for NI.
That 2-1 victory more than 68 years ago remains the only victory in 11 senior meetings.
NI haven’t even scored against Italy in the last seven games, and it is almost 65 years since they did so, Derek Dougan and Billy McAdams netting in a 3-2 loss on April 25, 1961 – the friendly agreed to by Italy after the ‘Battle of Windsor’.
The teams for Northern Ireland 2-1 Italy, January 15, 1958 (2-3-5 formations):
Northern Ireland: Uprichard; Cunningham, McMichael; D Blanchflower, J Blanchflower, Peacock; Bingham, Cush, Simpson, McIlroy, McParland.
Italy: Bugatti; Vincenzi, Carradi; Invernezzi, Ferrario, Segato; Ghiggia, Schiaffino, Pivatelli, Montuori, Da Costa.