Billy McCullough obituary: Arsenal footballer

Billy McCullough was a stalwart left back for Arsenal from 1958 to 1966, but arguably performed his most valuable service to the club while being consigned to the reserves in his final six months there.

The Ulsterman did not sulk, but looked about him and saw raw young players who while perhaps not in the very top bracket had the potential to be winners. With a mixture of tough love and avuncular charm, he nurtured the likes of Jon Sammels, John Radford, Bob Wilson, Peter Simpson and Pat Rice, who would play for the Gunners’ double-winning side of 1970-71.

For some 80 years Arsenal had just nine regular left backs. Billy McCullough filled the role 268 times between 1958 and 1966 in succession to Eddie Hapgood (1927-44), Wally Barnes (1943-56) and Dennis Evans (1951-63) and before Bob McNab (1966-75), Sammy Nelson (1966-81), Kenny Sansom (1980-88), Nigel Winterburn (1987-2000), Sylvinho (1999-2001) and Ashley Cole (1999-2006).

McCullough is remembered with as much affection as any of the others despite playing during a fallow period in terms of winning trophies. He was loved by fans for his unfailingly whole-hearted displays. And as he meted out his trademark tough tackles he was no respecter of elder statesmen such as Tom Finney or Stanley Matthews, and reminded young talents such as George Best or Alan Ball to mind their manners. Indeed, McCullough’s relish for a dual over 90 minutes earned him the nickname Flint on the terraces at Highbury, after Flint McCullough in the TV western series Wagon Train.

William James McCullough was born in 1935 in the town of Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, the youngest of 13 children to Samuel and Margaret McCullough. Working at a confectionery and grocery wholesaler near the Belfast docks, he played football at lunchtime on “a bit of waste ground”. Even kickabouts could lead to greater things, in McCullough’s case starting a journey that led him to Portadown and then being signed by Arsenal’s new manager, George Swindin in October 1958 for £5,000. Initially, when told he was flying to London to sign for the Gunners, he refused, but changed his mind a few days later.

On his debut against Luton Town on December 27, 1958, his mission was to stop Billy Bingham, a fellow Ulsterman regarded as one of the best right wingers in the game. “He’d played for Northern Ireland at the World Cup earlier that year and I remember him having a go at me all through the match.”

Several months later McCullough replaced Dennis Evans as Arsenal’s first choice left back and would be more or less ever present for the next five seasons. He also won ten caps for Northern Ireland between 1961 and 1966 and mentored a 17-year-old George Best. “I was playing at Highbury one day and we were playing Manchester United and the girl in the tearoom said ‘there’s a young fellow from Belfast with Manchester United who wants to meet you’. Three months later I was playing an international for Northern Ireland with George. He really was that good.”

In October 1965 McCullough lost his place in the Arsenal first team to Peter Storey. His final game for the club was a 2-1 defeat to Manchester United in March 1966. At the end of that season the physiotherapist Bertie Mee took over as manager and transfer-listed McCullough.

Having just got engaged to a local girl, he opted to remain in London and signed for Millwall but “didn’t like the environment of the club” and left after 19 appearances to sign for Bedford Town. He had a stint as player-manager of Cork City, where he is still remembered fondly nearly 60 years later for helping them to qualify for the final of the FAI Cup. He later moved on to Derry City, but then “the Troubles started up and my wife, who was a London girl, wanted to go home”.

Back in England, he became an electrical engineer at his father-in-law’s factory in Woodford, northeast London, and continued to attend Arsenal matches. “Arsenal is a great club and I am so proud to have played for them. They’ve been very good to me,” said McCullough who is survived by his daughter Nancy. “They ring me a few times a season and ask if I would like tickets for any games. I would have played for the club for nothing.”

One of the ex-players he would encounter was Pat Rice, another stalwart full back who was schooled by McCullough. “One day Pat Rice, who was only 17, shouted out: ‘McCullough, I’ll race you round the pitch.’ I said: ‘Give me a yard head start for every year I’m older than you.’ The other lads were geeing me up, and I was back sitting in the dugout at the halfway line before he’d turned the corner at the Clock End. I told him he needed a bit more experience before throwing out challenges like that. I still see him at the Emirates and remind him of it.”

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