[4] "Not a natural wing talent like a Tommy Lawton, Stanley Matthews or Tom Finney, Billy Bingham had realised shortly after his arrival in English football that he would have to work hard, at both the practical and theoretical side of the game.
[5] 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] 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] The "Hatters" finished 17th in the league in 1958–59, but reached the 1959 FA Cup final after Bingham scored the winning goal in the semi-final clash with Norwich City.
[1] New manager Sam Bartram failed to keep Bingham at Kenilworth Road for long, and after three goals in 11 Second Division games, including a 35-yard volley against Liverpool at Anfield, he soon attracted attention from Everton and Arsenal.
[8] Johnny Carey, now manager at Nottingham Forest, offered £12,000 to take Bingham back into the top-flight, but he elected to remain at Vale Park.
[citation needed] Bingham played at outside-right and had excellent tactical and positional skills and good scoring ability.
He departed Haig Avenue in October 1967,[10] with Southport in safe hands as they finished the 1967–68 Third Division campaign in 13th place under Don McEvoy's stewardship.
A battle against relegation followed in 1969–70, and Bingham departed Home Park in March 1970;[10] the club went on to finish 17th under Ellis Stuttard's stewardship.
[10] His one season at Windsor Park was highly successful, as he led the "Blues" to the 1970–71 Irish League title, three points ahead of rivals Glentoran.
The Greeks lost 2–0 to England at the Karaiskakis Stadium on 1 December, Geoff Hurst and Martin Chivers the scorers, to ensure English qualification to Euro 1972.
He left his post in February 1973 after two defeats to Spain meant Greece failed to qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
Signing players such as Martin Dobson and Bob Latchford, he led the "Toffees" to seventh in the First Division in 1973–74, two points off a place in the UEFA Cup.
Everton seemed likely to win the title again in 1974–75 but only won once in the last five games to finish a disappointing fourth, three points behind champions Derby County.
He lasted just six months in the job, however,[10] before being replaced by Lakis Petropoulos, who led the club to a second-place finish in Alpha Ethniki in 1977–78.
He led Northern Ireland to the 1982 FIFA World Cup, after qualifying, along with Scotland, with unlikely victories over Sweden, Portugal, and Israel.
In the tournament itself, despite a limited squad with only a few genuine world-class players at his disposal (goalkeeper Pat Jennings, captain Martin O'Neill, and 17-year-old Norman Whiteside), Bingham's team stunned the host nation, Spain with a 1–0 victory at the Mestalla Stadium.
[12] Their draws with Honduras and Yugoslavia meant they shocked the world by finishing top of their group with only two goals from Gerry Armstrong.
He led Northern Ireland to third in the British Home Championship in 1983, before they won the last ever edition of the tournament in 1984 with a 2–0 win over the Scots.
However, Northern Ireland failed in qualifying for UEFA Euro 1984, despite winning their group games 1–0 over West Germany both at Belfast and at the Volksparkstadion.
Bingham's men set out to deny the Irish the point they needed to secure qualification ahead of Denmark, with Northern Ireland unable to qualify.
[14] Both 1990 and 1994 qualification groups ended with Spain and the Republic qualifying, with Northern Ireland finishing some distance short of the mark.