Packie Bonner on the Jack Charlton era: ‘We didn’t realise how good we were’
Liam Brady. Alan Hansen. Paul McGrath. Gordon Strachan. Ronnie Whelan. Pat Nevin. Ray Houghton. Davie Cooper. Mark Lawrenson. Roy Aitken. Frank Stapleton. Mo Johnston.
It reads a bit like an Irish and Scottish Hall of Fame but these were just some of the stellar cast who shared the same pitch at Hampden Park on February 18, 1987 for a European Championship qualifier which, with the visitors winning 1-0, many have since come to regard as the catalyst for all the unprecedented successes of Jack Charlton’s reign as manager — the golden era of Euro 88, Italia 90 and USA 94.
But while it’s true that Lawrenson’s goal secured the victory which would help propel Ireland to their first ever tournament finals in Germany the following year, the record actually shows that it was far from plain sailing on the pitch for Irish football in the aftermath of that celebrated victory in Glasgow.
Indeed, it took a good while longer before the broader Irish public were ready to fully partake in what, over the next seven years, would take on all the trappings of a national obsession.
Jack Charlton had been appointed Ireland manager almost exactly a year before the game at Parkhead and, on the occasion of his competitive debut at the helm, for a match away to Belgium on September 10, 1986, there had been an encouraging sign that the tide might finally be about to turn on the ancient Irish narrative of serial under-achievement, agonising near-misses and baleful refereeingdecisions.
That night in Brussels, long-suffering travelling supporters — and the Green Army in those days was composed of no other kind — had the novel, almost surreal, experience of seeing Ireland being awarded a last-minute penalty, which Liam Brady coolly converted to secure an excellent 2-2 draw in their first match of the 1988 European Championship campaign.
But, in the very next qualifier, a month later in Dublin, it seemed to be straight back to the same old, same old, as Ireland and Scotland played out a dire scoreless draw at Lansdowne Road in front of a big crowd of 45,000 whose fresh sense of expectation quickly curdled into all too familiar disappointment.
That was the backdrop to the return game in Hampden Park, with both countries looking to push Bulgaria and Belgium all the way in a tough qualifying group which was completed by minnows Luxembourg.
Recalling the mood in the camp in the build-up to the match, goalkeeper Packie Bonner concedes that there would still have been Irish players who remained to be convinced that the Jack Charlton way — a direct, no-frills, high-pressure, defending from the front game — was anything like the correct approach in international football.
“I would probably think they were still checking Jack out, trying to come to terms with the way he was wanting to play the game,” he reflects.
“Especially the likes of Liam (Brady) and that whole process of trying to get him to play further forward rather than taking the ball off the goalkeeper or the centre-halves. Mark Lawrenson too was probably coming to terms with playing in midfield at that time. But the way we were generally set-up, so defensively organised, suited me down to a tee, so I really bought into what Jack was doing — from a defensive perspective — very early on.”
The new manager raised more than a few eyebrows, however, when, in response to an injury crisis which robbed him of full-backs Davy Langan, Jim Beglin and Chris Hughton, he opted to deploy Manchester United centre-half Paul McGrath and Liverpool midfielder Ronnie Whelan at right and left back respectively for what was regarded as a daunting away fixture against a country which, in stark contrast to the barren Irish qualification experience since the dawn of footballing time, had qualified for four successive World Cup finals from 1974 to 1986.
“It was an unusual back four but these were players who could adapt,” recalls Bonner. “Paul could play anywhere across the back four. So could Ronnie who, as a midfielder, was a defensive-type player anyway. So from that perspective, I didn’t see it being a huge issue. Overall, it was probably a fairly defensive set-up with Lawro in the middle of the pitch and that back four. And the full-backs weren’t going to be overlapping, put it that way.”
Ironically, despite the initial controversy surrounding Charlton’s selection, the Irish starting team that night — Bonner, McGrath, Moran, McCarthy, Whelan, Houghton, Lawrenson, Brady, Galvin, Stapleton, Aldridge — has since come to be regarded by many players, pundits and fans as the most formidable ever to line out in the green shirt.
Bonner doesn’t demur.
“When I’m speaking in various places and I’m asked about the best Irish team ever, I quote that team,” he says. “Not just the players but the teams that they played for: Liverpool, Celtic, Manchester United, Liam still playing in Italy. It was incredible.”
But the opposition were no slouches either, as a glance at the names mentioned in the opening paragraph confirms. Indeed, such was Scotland’s pedigree at the time, that manager Andy Roxburgh could afford to have Old Firm favourites Paul McStay and Ally McCoist on the bench at the start of the game.
A decent side, no?
“Oh it was, it was,” says Bonner who, as Celtic goalkeeper, had plenty of first-hand experience of the Scottish game. “The standard then was very good. Our big problem was I don’t think we believed in ourselves enough because we’d never been there before, we’d never qualified. So you were always a bit apprehensive. Put it another way: we didn’t realise how good we were.”
They had a better idea after the 90 minutes of action in Hampden, Ireland’s victory the product of a seventh minute Mark Lawrenson goal, after which the early advantage was protected right to the end by a disciplined collective display. It would later be observed, not entirely in jest, that in the Jack Charlton scheme of things, Bonner would become the team’s playmaker, his booming kick-outs the launch pad for many of their attacks and, of fond memory in particular, the Kevin Sheedy and Niall Quinn goals against England and the Netherlands, respectively, at Italia ’90.
But on that chilly November night at Hampden Park — when the notion of European Championship, never mind World Cup, qualification for Ireland still belonged to the realms of fantasy — Bonner had begun the game’s decisive move by throwing the ball out to Ray Houghton on the right flank.
Houghton looked up and clipped a lofted ball up the line for skipper Frank Stapleton, who drew a heavy challenge in the air from the combined forces of Alan Hansen and Maurice Malpas. This was to prove a double or even a triple whammy for the Scots, as the Dutch referee blew for a foul in favour of Ireland. With the ball still well out on the right side, there shouldn’t have been any immediate danger for the home side except that Malpas, who’d come off worst in the challenge with Stapleton, was still lying on the ground and Hansen was still trying to get back into position, when John Aldridge — spotting Mark Lawrenson steaming through the middle — quickly took the free. The Liverpool man received the pass in his stride, continued his run into the penalty area and, evading a last-ditch tackle by Richard Gough, buried a shot low to the corner of Jim Leighton’s net.
For Bonner, the fact that the anticipated Scottish backlash never materialised was testament to the solidity of the display by the players in front of him. Even when the goalkeeper was beaten, Mick McCarthy was perfectly placed beside the far post to clear a goal-bound effort off the line.
“Scotland had two exceptional wingers in Davie Cooper and Pat Nevin that night so they were set up to be attack-minded but I can’t remember them creating many chances,” Bonner says. “Really, it was a comfortable enough night for us at the back, which was surprising. And, for me it was a great night because, obviously, I was playing my football in Scotland so I was up against some of my colleagues in Hampden Park.”
The result was certainly a significant one given the Republic’s historic struggles on the road but, although the victory has since been credited as the big breakthrough for Irish football under Charlton, that’s not how it felt once the qualifying campaign resumed the following year.
Instead, in what seemed altogether more like a reversion to the one-step-forward-two-steps-back pattern of so many previous campaigns, Ireland lost their next game 2-1 away to Bulgaria and could then only manage a scoreless draw at home to Belgium.
Narrow back to back wins over Luxembourg set up a home game against Bulgaria which the Irish had to win if they were to keep their slim hopes of a first-ever qualification alive.
And, with their best display of the entire campaign, they duly delivered at Lansdowne Road, goals from Paul McGrath and Kevin Moran securing a 2-0 victory — although a late red card for man of the match Liam Brady would, as we were to learn the following summer, have far-reaching consequences.
To the fine Irish wins away to Scotland and at home to Bulgaria in the transformative year of 1987, could also be added a memorable 1-0 victory over Brazil in a friendly at Lansdowne Road in May, courtesy of a typically clever Brady goal.
Yet, there was still no sense at the time that the Irish public were being won over by the Jack Charlton project: Only 17,000 bothered to turn up for what should have been a glamour fixture against the Brazilians and, even with qualification hopes for the European Championships on the line, just 26,000 were in Lansdowne for the must-win game against Bulgaria the following October.
And this, at a time when, with standing still permissible on the terraces, the old ground could accommodate a crowd of around 50,000.
All of which tends to support the view previously expressed by Kevin Moran, amongst others, that it was it was the celebrated Euro ’88 tournament itself — and not the topsy turvy qualification campaign preceding it — which really got the bandwagon rolling for what would become Irish football’s time of plenty (at least in terms of results, if not always the quality of the football).
But, for Packie Bonner, the wins in 1987 still deserve to be regarded as vital stepping stones along the way, even if it took the public longer than the players to catch on.
“When we beat Scotland, there was definitely something happening,” he recalls. “When we beat Brazil, I think it changed a lot of people’s minds about the team. Those results were key. But Kevin’s right, it was when we qualified and went and performed exceptionally well in the tournament that it all really took off. That night in Hanover, against the USSR (with whom Ireland drew 1-1) was as well as we’d played in a long, long time. It wasn’t kick and rush. We should have won that game. I should also say that we’d only conceded one goal in the previous seven games. And all that, and the win against England obviously, reinforced the belief that we had a real team — and that, remember, was without Liam who was suspended and Mark who was injured. We knew then we were hard to beat.”
Of course, there had been one last, improbable twist on the road before Ireland were able to reach the promised land. Having completed their own campaign with that necessary victory against Bulgaria, qualification was out of their hands. They now needed a big favour from Scotland to ensure that Bulgaria, one point behind the Irish, wouldn’t leapfrog them to the top of the Group 7 table in their final match of the campaign.
But a Scottish victory in Sofia seemed highly unlikely: the visitors, already out of the running and with a dismal away record in the group, had nothing but pride to play for, making the Bulgarians — who hadn’t lost a qualification match on home soil in five years — hot favourites to get the point they needed.
But in one of the seismic shocks in European football of that era, Scotland struck with only four minutes remaining to win 1-0, the goal earning its scorer — Gary Mackay of Hearts, who was making his international debut as a substitute — an honoured place in Irish sporting folklore.
“I remember being back home in Glasgow for that game, watching it on television,” Bonner recalls. “Andrew, my son, was only three years old and sleeping on my knee when the whole thing was going on. No one expected Scotland to get a result, especially in a place like Bulgaria. So you’re watching and hoping but not expecting — and then, suddenly, Scotland score with just a few minutes to go. And Andrew went up in the air!”
Just as well Dad was a goalie and could catch him on the way down, eh?
“(Laughs) Absolutely. And I remember then I picked up the phone to a friend of mine who was in London and couldn’t see the game and I almost did a commentary off the TV for him until the final whistle.”
There was to be a memorable postscript to a remarkable night when Bonner received a phone call from The Daily Record asking if he’d be prepared to greet his Celtic team-mates and the rest of the Scottish team on their return to Glasgow airport.
“And I did,” Packie laughs. “I was on such a high anyway that I wouldn’t have been able to sleep, so there I was at the airport around midnight having my picture taken with the Scottish lads, presenting them with a bottle of champagne.”
These days, Packie Bonner spends a lot of his time travelling Europe as a Uefa instructor specialising in the area of goalkeeper coach education, but he hopes to be back in his old stomping ground of Celtic Park for the renewal of Scottish-Irish rivalry tomorrow night.
“I think we probably have a good opportunity and, if we get a result again like we got all those years ago, it might be a catalyst to go on,” he says. “But, who knows, maybe we’ll even need Scotland to help us qualify again.
“Or,” he adds with a laugh, “maybe it’ll be vice versa this time.”
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