After managing the Irish national side since 1973, John Giles resigned from his position on April 15th 1980. Despite having a series of disagreements (one of which lead to a temporary resignation in 1978) with the FAI, the reaction was one of shock. Giles combined his job managing Ireland with the manager position at Shamrock Rovers where he was attempting, and failing, to impose a “football revolution”.
One of the main members of his team at Shamrock Rovers was Eamonn Dunphy – who along with Alan Kelly senior – was installed as the favourite to take over from Giles to lead Ireland into the qualifiers for the 1982 World Cup Finals. Alan Kelly was given the opportunity to take the role and oversaw a 2-0 friendly win over Switzerland. However, Kelly was blocked from taking the role on a full time basis by his club Preston North End.
One of Kelly’s first acts before the Swiss friendly was to appoint Limerick player-manager Eoin Hand as his assistant and the FAI offered Hand a caretaker role for the forthcoming glamour friendly against World Champions Argentina. Diego Maradona set up the only goal of the game for Jose Valencia. It appeared that would be Hand’s only game in charge as the FAI advertised the position in the national newspapers shortly afterwards. However, Hand was offered the position several weeks later. This did not go down well with Hand’s employers at Limerick United. League Champions for the first time in twenty years, Limerick had been drawn against Real Madrid in the European Cup. While not standing in his way the Limerick board resented his new position as manager of the national side believing that he could not serve two masters. With players not paid a promised bonus – Hand resigned from Limerick on the 25th July 1980 only to return four weeks later as General Manager following a restructuring of the club’s management committee.
With his domestic situation now settled, Hand set about to continue the campaign for the 1982 World Cup Finals that had commenced in March 1980 with a 3-2 win over Cyprus. First up for Hand at Lansdowne Road was 1978 runners-up Holland. In an exciting battle, Ireland produced a battling display to come from behind to secure a hard-fought victory. The Dutch took the lead after an error by goalkeeper Gerry Peyton. Ireland responded magnificently. With twelve minutes remaining Tony Grealish played a 1-2 with Frank Stapleton and picked out Gerry Daly to score from 10 yards. With the Dutch prepared to settle for a point – Ireland hit them with an 85th minute sucker punch. Liam Brady curled in a free-kick for Mark Lawrenson to score with a low diving header. Captain Brady was delighted to the result: “Although there is still a long way to go before the qualifiers for Spain emerge this result gives us a fine chance to make it”.
The excitement and optimism that followed the Dutch result was demonstrated by an increase of 15,000 people in the attendance for the next qualifying match against Belgium. 40,000 people turned up on October 15th to witness an exciting clash that ended in a 1-1 draw. Tony Grealish ran on to a Gerry Daly pass to round Pfaff and level with a late equaliser.
Liam Brady came face to face with the man who to soon replace him at Juventus in Ireland’s next qualifying encounter in Paris. Michel Platini ran the show for France as Ireland produced a brave but fell to a two goal defeat. Despite that defeat, Ireland’s 6-0 defeat of Cyprus in the following qualifer left Hand’s team in an excellent position. With two automatic qualifying places – Ireland needed four points from their remaining three games (two points for a win).
The first of the three qualifiers in 1981 has gone down in infamy as one of the most disappointing and controversial nights in Irish football history. The venue was the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. Ireland produced a superb rear-guard action against the Belgians and in the 44th minute scored what appeared to be a perfectly good goal. Liam Brady’s free-kick was met by a perfectly timed Frank Stapelton run and his header beat Michel Preud’Homme in the Belgian goal. The linesman kept his flag down – but, with a Belgian defender lying on the ground in the six yard box, the referee charged up to the box and indicated a free-out. No Irish player went near the Belgian defender. To make matters worse, the referee awarded Belgium a free-kick in the 87th minute following a dive by Eric Gerets. The free-kick hit the crossbar and Jan Ceulemans headed home past Jacko McDonagh for the winner. Hand pulled no punches following the game: “There is only one word to describe that referee’s performance – disgraceful. Any neutral in the stadium would agree that we deserved to get something out of this game. The Belgians had run out of ideas at a relatively early stage.” Even the Belgian press could not make sense of the decision. The most popular theory that emerged was that the Portuguese referee, Fernando Nazarre, had blown up because he took up an incorrect position that resulted in him getting entangled with a number of players on the edge of the box. Feeling that he may have contributed to the goal he panicked and blew his whistle. The FAI estimated that failure to qualify for the 1982 World Cup would cost the association £1 Million pounds. Ireland required two wins from their last two games to have any chance.
Ireland travelled to Rotterdam on the 9th September and contrived a recovery of remarkable proportions. Ireland got off to bright start and Michael Robinson should have put them ahead in the opening seconds. However, a Steve Heighway error presented Ipswich Town star Frans Thijssen an opportunity to open the scoring after 12 minutes and the winger made no mistake. Ireland battled back an levelled matters after 40 minutes when Liam Brady crossed for Robinson to atone for his earlier miss with an exceptional finish from 12 yards. Dave Langan hacked down Johnny Rep in the second half and Arnold Muhren dispatched the penalty to put Holland 2-1 up. Frank Stapleton came to Ireland’s resuce after 71 minutes when he headed home a Lawrenson cross to earn a valuable point.
It got better for Ireland in our last qualifer in October. The visitors were France. After just five minutes great work by Ronnie Whelan and Robbie Robinson forced a French defender into scoring an own-goal. The lead lasted just four minutes when Bruno Bellone turned Dave Langan and Kevin Moran inside out before blasting home an equaliser. Mick Martin set up Stapleton to put Ireland back in front after 24 minutes. Michael Robinson added a third and Ireland were able to hang on after Platini pulled one back after 82 minutes.
This win gave Ireland a slight chance at qualification. France faced Holland in November with a bizarre triangle of possible outcomes. A win for either side would put them into the World Cup. If, however, the match at Parc Des Princes ended a draw, then Eoin Hand would have succeeded in being the first Ireland manager to qualify for a major International tournament. However, the French did the business and the Irish dreams were shattered. France went on to play scintillating football at the World Cup before being eliminated on penalties by West Germany at the Semi-Final stage. Belgium were the other team to qualify but, despite beating Argentina in their opening game, failed to make any lasting impression.Unfortunately for Eoin Hand, that was as good as it was going to get during his reign.
The qualifiers for the 1984 European Championships provided a lot of drama but Ireland never really threatened to qualify. Having drawn 3-3 with Spain, Ireland’s campaign effectively ended when they lost a 2-0 half-time lead against a Ruud Gullit inspired Dutch at Dalymount Park to lose 3-2. The World Cup qualifers for Mexico 1986 started superbly when a Mickey Walsh goal defeated the Soviet Union. However, a terrible defeat in Oslo was followed by a thrashing by the sensational Danes. A 0-0 home draw with Norway ended any realistic hopes. Hand announced his intention to leave the post prior to a 4-1 home thrashing by Denmark in November 1985. It would take a hard necked Geordie to take Ireland to the next level over the next five years.
