Team created by a collaborative effort of 27DONI72, Milos, StuartBannigan and gurkenjoe93










COACH: Billy Bingham




The best ever Northern Ireland players 23-man squad



GOALKEEPERS:

● Harry GREGG
● Pat JENNINGS


DEFENDERS:

● Alf McMICHAEL
● Pat RICE
● Allan HUNTER
● Chris NICHOLL
● Mal DONAGHY
● Aaron HUGHES
● Jonny EVANS


MIDFIELDERS:

● Peter DOHERTY
● Danny BLANCHFLOWER
● Bertie PEACOCK
● Jimmy McILROY
● Martin O'NEILL
● Sammy McILROY
● Steven DAVIS


FORWARDS:

● Billy BINGHAM
● Peter McPARLAND
● Derek DOUGAN
● George BEST
● Gerry ARMSTRONG
● Norman WHITESIDE
● David HEALY




____________________________________________________________________________



RESERVES:


GOALKEEPERS:

● Elisha SCOTT
● Jim PLATT
● Maik TAYLOR

DEFENDERS:

● Billy McCRACKEN
● Willie CUNNINGHAM
● Alex ELDER
● Terry NEILL
● Sammy NELSON
● Jimmy NICHOLL
● John McCLELLAND
● Nigel WORTHINGTON
● Alan McDONALD
● Gareth McAULEY

MIDFIELDERS:

● Val HARRIS
● Bill LACEY
● Wilbur CUSH
● Jimmy NICHOLSON
● Bryan HAMILTON
● David McCREERY
● Jim MAGILTON
● Michael HUGHES
● Oliver NORWOOD
● Stuart DALLAS

FORWARDS:

● Olphert STANFIELD
● Joe BAMBRICK
● Johnny CROSSAN
● Willie IRVINE
● Billy HAMILTON
● Jimmy QUINN
● Colin CLARKE
● Iain DOWIE
● Keith GILLESPIE
● Kyle LAFFERTY

Martin O'Neill was never Northern Ireland manager so I have no idea why he's the manager here, it should be Billy Bingham (two World Cup qualifications, quarter finals in 1982, manager for 18 years). David Healy should be in first team, he is by far NI's top scorer, including a hattrick against Spain in a 3-2 win, a winning goal against England, two goals against Sweden in a 2-1 win, a record 13 goals in Euro 2008 qualifying. He can easily replace Derek Dougan here who never did anything particularly important for NI, or maybe Joe Bambrick who only ever played for the combined Ireland team...

Likewise, Peter McParland can be in first team over Patsy Gallacher who also only played in the combined Ireland team, when he was already old and with 0 goals in the 12 games he played, while McParland scored 5 goals in the 1958 World Cup (against Argentina, West Germany and Czechoslovakia, no less). Only Pele, Fontaine and Rahn scored more goals than him at that tournament, to be honest it's simply unbelievable he isn't in this team. Aaron Hughes can also replace Sammy Nelson, the team already has 3 left backs with McMichael and Elder (McMichael was one of the most important players at the 58 World Cup, and Elder was just better than Nelson). Hughes was captain for about 10 years and one of the better defenders in the Premier League for most of that time, and played in that Euro 2016 team too.

Some names for the reserves: Gareth McAuley, Jonny Evans, Kyle Lafferty, Chris Brunt, Chris Baird, Maik Taylor, Wilbur Cush, Nigel Worthington.

Martin O'Neill coached Ireland and has the same initial letter of Michael O'Neill who has been Nothern Ireland coach for seven years now. He probably confused them.

Maybe, but I don’t think this team has been updated since it was created, by which point Michael O’Neill had only been in charge for just over a year, so I doubt it...

How about Elisha Scott to the reserves?

He was removed last update... Apparently almost 16 years as first choice goalkeeper aren't that big of a deal when we talk about an era where National teams only played 3-4 times a year rather than 2 times a month.

That was a strange desicion....
I have all the respect for Maik Taylor but he wasn't even in the same league as Elisha Scott, at least we could have 3 keepers among the reserves for this team.

The link of Jimmy Quinn is wrong. The player in the link is the Celtic's legend, born in 1878. But Jimmy Quinn who played in Northern Ireland is James Martin Quinn, born in 1959.

I think Joe Bambrick is a way too big of a player to not be included here.

Northern Irish football is complicated before the 50s, after the partition of Ireland there were 2 Irish national teams, but neither were officially known as the Northern Irish or Republic of Ireland national team. So technically guys like Bambrick, Patsy Gallagher, Elisha Scott etc. never played for the Northern Irish national team. Although this team will be updated at some point and I think it makes sense to include those Northern Irish guys that played for the combined Irish teams just like you would include Beara in Croatia, Blokhin in Ukraine etc.

Bambrick played for the Ireland national team in the 1930s, after the partition of Ireland. Technically, the Ireland national team was then supposed to be restricted to Northern Irish players. At the same time, Bambrick played for the Irish League XI, which was in some way a predecessor to the Northern Ireland team. Therefore, with a total of 23 matches and 21 goals, I believe he's more than eligible, much like Elisha Scott and probably many more.

My Best XI:

Updated.