Billy Bingham
Billy Bingham, the United Kingdom forward, made 294 appearances for Sunderland. He found the net 60 times, averaging 0.2 goals per game. His most prolific season in our data was 1955-56, with 12 goals.
William Laurence Bingham MBE (5 August 1931 – 9 June 2022) was a Northern Irish football player and manager . As a player, his first professional club was Glentoran , for whom he played between 1948 and 1950. Making a move to England, he then spent eight years with Sunderland , making 227 appearances. In 1958, he switched to Luton Town , making nearly 100 league appearances in three years. This was followed by a two-year association with Everton , where he again went close to 100 league appearances. He finished his career after breaking his leg in a match for Port Vale in 1964 at 33. He had scored 133 goals in 525 appearances in all domestic competitions. Between 1951 and 1963, he won 56 caps for Northern Ireland , scoring 10 international goals, and played at the 1958 FIFA World Cup . His managerial career started at Southport in 1965. He was appointed manager of Northern Ireland two years later after taking the "Sandgrounders" to promotion out of the Fourth Division . During his time as an international manager, he also took charge at Plymouth Argyle and later Linfield . He led Linfield to a quadruple in 1970–71, his only season in charge. In 1971, he was appointed the head coach of the Greece national side. Two years later, he returned to the domestic game with Everton of England. He returned to Greece briefly in 1977, taking the reins at PAOK . The following year, he returned to England to take charge of Mansfield Town for one full season. In 1980, he was re-appointed as Northern Ireland manager, his final position and a post he would hold for the next 13 years. He led — Wikipedia
- Position
- FW
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Birthplace
- Belfast
- Born
- 5 Aug 1931
- Height
- 170 cm
Bingham joined Sunderland in October 1950 for £ 10,000. [ 7 ] He was first informed of the move by football writer Charlie Buchan , who shook his hand and said "congratulations, you've been transferred to Sunderland". [ 8 ] In addition to playing professional football at Roker Park , Bingham continued his shipbuilding apprenticeship on the Sunderland shipyards. [ 1 ] His speed and ball-control made him a popular player with the "Black Cats", and he gradually worked his way into Bill Murray 's first-team plans in 1950–51 . [ 1 ] He initially was behind Len Duns and Tommy Wright in the pecking order, despite Sunderland's transfer outlay on him as the beginnings of their "Bank of England" team, and he played for the reserves in the North Eastern League . [ 9 ] Wright suffered a drop in form, leaving Bingham to make his debut against Stoke City in December. [ 10 ] He trained hard and also utilised weight training to improve his strength and compensate for his undersized frame. [ 11 ] Wright then suffered a serious injury in March, leaving Bingham to take his place for the remainder of the 1950–51 season. [ 12 ] He played in all but six games of the 1951–52 campaign as Wright recovered from his injury, with the Black Cats labouring to a 12th-place finish. [ 13 ] He lost his place to the returning Wright in the 1952–53 season. [ 1 ] He made just 19 appearances in 1953–54 , as Wright continued to hold on to his first-team place. [ 1 ] Bingham regained his place in 1954–55 , scoring ten goals in 42 games, as Sunderland finished fourth in the First Division , four points behind champions Chelsea . [ 1 ] His scoring tally included two consecutive braces in victories over Charlton Athletic and Tyne–Wear derby rivals Newcastle United . [ 12 ] They also reached the FA Cup semi-finals , where they lost to Manchester City on a quagmire of a pitch at Villa Park . [ 14 ] They slipped to ninth in 1955–56 , and again exited the FA Cup at the semi-finals, this time losing 3–0 to Birmin — Wikipedia
By Season
Appearances counted as matches started or come on as substitute. Figures from recorded season totals — we hold no match-by-match data for this era.
Similar Players
Similarity scores (0–100) weigh position, scoring rate, appearances and era.