Willie Irvine

Burnley

Irvine joined the Burnley youth team initially on a month's trial, along with other young players including Brian O'Neil and Willie Morgan. He suffered an injury to his ankle but recovered in time for the final trial match against local rivals Blackburn Rovers. His performances during the month had sufficiently impressed manager Harry Potts, and Irvine was offered a permanent contract. He became a full member of the youth team and was an understudy to the team that won the Football League First Division in the 1959–60 season. As an apprentice footballer he earned a basic wage of £7 per week. While in the youth squad, Irvine was converted into a centre forward and in his first match in the position scored a hat-trick for the Burnley C team. He scored more than 40 goals for the A team in the Lancashire League during the 1961–62 season, including 6 in an 8–3 win against a Blackburn Rovers representative team. On 14 October 1961, Irvine made his debut for the Burnley reserve side, scoring a hat-trick in a 6–1 victory over Barnsley. Both the A team and the reserves were crowned champions of their respective divisions at the end of the season, and Potts singled out Irvine for particular praise, stating that Burnley had not "had a more consistent goal getter than Willie for a very long time."

Going into the 1962–63 campaign, Irvine returned to the Burnley A team and scored a hat-trick against Bury early in the season. After Andy Lochhead was promoted to the first…

Irvine's first taste of international football came in 1958, when he represented the Northern Ireland schoolboy team in the Victory Shield. Five years later, he made his debut for the Northern Ireland national under-23 football team, when he played alongside his brother Bobby in a 5–1 defeat to Wales on 27 February 1963. During the next two years, he played twice more for the under-23 team, scoring three goals for the side. Irvine received his first call-up to the Northern Ireland senior team in April 1963, one month before he made his professional debut for Burnley. He went straight into the team and won his first cap on 3 April 1963 in a 4–1 loss to Wales in the British Home Championship. He received his next cap the following month and scored his first international goal on 30 May 1963 in the 1–1 draw with Spain in the first round of the 1964 European Nations Cup. It was over a year before Irvine was selected to represent his country again, when he was included in the squad for a 2–1 defeat to Switzerland in a qualification match for the 1966 FIFA World Cup. On 25 November 1964, he scored his second Northern Ireland goal in the loss to Scotland in the British Home Championship. Irvine was involved in his first win with the Northern Ireland team when they defeated the Netherlands in a World Cup qualifying game on 17 March 1965. During the remainder of the 1964–65 season, he won a further three caps for his country. Between 2 October 1965 and 30 March 1966, Irvine scored in…

As a youngster, Irvine played as a goalkeeper until his elder brother Bobby, who went on to keep goal for the Northern Ireland national team, threatened to "batter" him. He subsequently moved into a midfield position, before becoming a centre forward during his time in the Burnley youth team. Described as a natural and instinctive goalscorer, Irvine stated that one of his main strengths as a striker was the ability to anticipate where the ball was going to land.

William John Irvine was born on 18 June 1943 in the village of Eden, County Antrim, on the east coast of Northern Ireland. He was born to Alex and Agnes Irvine, and had 17 half-brothers and half-sisters from his mother's previous marriages. Irvine was 11 months old when his father, who had played football for Distillery, died after being involved in a motorcycle accident. He came from a poor background and when he was young the family resided in a small wooden bungalow that had neither electricity nor running water. His mother worked often, and Irvine was looked after by his elder siblings. At the age of one, he started to attend Eden School so that he could be looked after by the teachers while his sisters earned money. When he was seven years old, the family moved to the Sunnylands estate in nearby Carrickfergus after his mother was sent to Omagh Prison for falsely claiming benefits.

Irvine soon warmed to his new neighbourhood; he enjoyed visiting Carrickfergus Castle and often spent time at the harbour. In 1950, he moved to Sunnylands Primary School and began to play football seriously. He initially concentrated on playing as a goalkeeper for the school team. In 1953, the team reached the final of the County Cup, but were defeated 0–3 by an older side from Carrick Technical School. Irvine's elder brother Bobby, who went on to represent Stoke City and was also a Northern Ireland international, played for the opposition. Along with his schoolmate William Donnelly, Irvine…