Northern Ireland, Billy Bingham and a life less ordinary

Norn Iron went two goals down within 20 minutes against Kosovo yesterday, and, well, they weren’t going to turn that around, were they. This latest fiasco led to the 500-strong travelling Green and White Army chanting “cheerio” at manager Ian Baraclough, who has won just three of 19 competitive games in charge. “Let’s not be negative,” retorted Baraclough, who went on to make the claim that Paddy McNair, injured on the morning of the match, would have made some sort of difference, before adding gnomically: “I understand the fans’ frustration but there are ways to losing a game of football and that’s it.” No, we’re none the wiser either, and we’ve even held it up to the light and looked at it from various angles.

Norn Iron have now played 13 Nations League matches and won a grand total of none of them, with ten defeats. If nothing else, they’re taking a brave and principled stance of Irish unity, with the Republic’s record in Uefa’s fledgling waste of time just as bad: no wins in 12 for Stephen Kenny’s confused rabble. But in and of itself, Norn Iron’s record isn’t great, and having gone into group K22 (subs, please check) as top seeds (this surely can’t be right either), they find themselves eight points off the pace set by Greece, and five shy of the second-placed Kosovans. Victory at Windsor Park over Cyprus on Sunday is now essential, though while Baraclough still believes the home crowd will be “all in behind the team, not a problem”, what can anyone realistically expect when you’re going into battle without Middlesbrough’s defensive linchpin? Get well soon, Paddy.

But while Norn Iron’s current plight is something of a downer, it at least illustrates, by way of sheer contrast, how great the achievements of Billy