Peter McParland: Celebrated Aston Villa winger was a football hero from a different age

A legend for both Villa and Northern Ireland, McParland starred in a sport in many ways unrecognisable to the one played today.

“The last of our heroes from that famous era,” read the statement from the Northern Ireland FA on Sunday night, when news of his death at the age of 91 was announced. There is no better way of putting it than that.

McParland’s five goals for Northern Ireland at the 1958 World Cup earned him international fame. For Villa, of course, it is the two he scored a year earlier against Manchester United in the FA Cup final with which he will always be most remembered, yet there was far more to his career and life than one afternoon at Wembley to be celebrated.

Born in Newry in 1934, McParland became a Villa supporter as a boy when his father John, who had left Northern Ireland to work in a Birmingham factory during the war, sent back newspaper clippings featuring the club’s reports.

“I never wanted to play for anyone else,” he would later say.

He got his wish in 1952, aged 18, when then Villa manager George Martin signed him from Dundalk.

Over the next decade, he would go on to establish himself as one of the finest left wingers of the era, scoring 121 goals in 341 total appearances. That included 18 in the 1959-60 season, helping Villa win the Second Division title and an immediate return to the top flight. 

A year later, he would score the winner in the inaugural League Cup final, becoming the first player to net in both domestic cup finals. 

McParland’s finest hour in a Villa shirt, at Wembley in ‘57, has always been the subject of some complaint from the beaten side. In the seventh minute, his charge at Ray Wood (by no means illegal or uncommon at the time) left the United goalkeeper with a fractured cheekbone and suffering from concussion.

Booed by half of the 100,000-strong crowd for the rest of the match, McParland netted in the 68th and 73rd minutes to ensure Tommy Taylor’s late header was a mere consolation. Wood, in the days before substitutes, spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the left wing, while Jackie Blanchflower went in goal. Truly, a sport from a different age.

Tough as nails on the pitch, off it McParland was a quietly spoken gentleman, with a razor wit which never left him.

Asked in 2020 by the Express & Star to describe his “lost” League Cup final winner (the match was not televised), he swiftly replied: ““Oh, you should have seen it! I must have beaten what, six men? Then I stuck in the top corner!”

Then, after a smile and a brief pause, he continued: “On the other hand, maybe the ball was bobbling around and I belted it in from about two yards out. But no-one who wasn’t there can claim the first version isn’t true!”

McParland left Villa in 1962 and joined Wolves but only stayed for one season at Molineux, scoring 10 goals, before moving on to Plymouth, Worcester City and eventually back to Northern Ireland with Glentoran, where he became player-manager.

He later managed Hong Kong and even had a stint coaching in Libya, before Colonel Gadaffi banned football from the country.

Living in Bournemouth, he was a familiar face whenever Villa played on the south coast, while he also attended a number of matches at Villa Park too.

Speaking to the club in January as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations, he said: “My ambition was to play for Aston Villa and I achieved it and I loved playing for the club. It was my life.”