Noel Euchuria Cornelius Cantwell (28 February 1932 – 8 September 2005) was an Irish
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...
player and sometime
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
er.
Club career
Cantwell was born in
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
, Ireland, and was educated at the Roman Catholic Presentation Brothers College in Cork. Cantwell played as a
full-back for Western Rovers,
Cork Athletic,
West Ham United and
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
.
While at West Ham, he featured in the
London XI
The London XI was a football team that represented the city of London in the 1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
The competition began in 1955, and the first tournament took three years to complete. The entrants were the major football team of ...
side that competed in the 1955–58
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecessor to the UEFA Cup ( ...
final on 1 May 1958. He captained the Hammers to winning the Division Two championship in the 1957–58 season and thereby leading the club into the top flight for the first time since 1932.
In November 1960, Cantwell joined
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
for £29,500 which at the time was a record for a full back. He helped the club win the 1965 and 1967 league titles and captained United when winning the
1963 FA Cup Final – just as his fellow countryman
Johnny Carey had done in United's previous FA Cup win
15 years earlier.
He also served as Chairman of the
Professional Footballers' Association
The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. Founded in 1907, it is the world's oldest professional sport trade union, and has over 5,000 members.
The aims of ...
.
International career
Cantwell won 36 full International caps for the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...
(typically playing at left full back and on several occasions at centre forward) and he made his debut against
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
in October 1953; his final appearance coming away to
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
in February 1967. He scored 14 goals including 5 from penalties and also captained the Republic on several occasions including a match against
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
at
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
.
Managerial career
In his first managerial role at
Coventry City
Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...
Cantwell had the onerous task of following
Jimmy Hill
James William Thomas Hill, OBE (22 July 1928 – 19 December 2015) was an English footballer and later a television personality. His career included almost every role in the sport, including player, trade union leader, coach, manager, director, ...
who had taken the club into the
First Division for the first time in their history. Cantwell narrowly kept the Sky Blues in the top in his first two seasons before taking them to a sixth-place finish in
1969–70, earning them qualification for the
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecessor to the UEFA Cup ( ...
(a year before it was replaced by the
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
).
He departed from
Highfield Road
Highfield Road was a football stadium in the city of Coventry, England. It was the home ground for Coventry City F.C. for 106 years.
History
It was built in 1899 in the Hillfields district, close to the city centre, and staged its final game ...
on 12 March 1972, but within seven months was back in
English football
Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...
as manager of
Peterborough United.
He helped Peterborough win the
Fourth Division title in his first full season as manager, before leaving on 10 May 1977 to manage the
New England Tea Men
The New England Tea Men were an American professional soccer team based in Greater Boston. They played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 to 1980. Their home venues for outdoor play were Schaefer Stadium (shared with the NFL's ...
.
He returned to Peterborough on 19 November 1986 for a second spell as manager, remaining in this role until he became general manager on 12 July 1988. He was general manager at
London Road for a year until he quit football to become
licensee
A licensee can mean the holder of a license or, in U.S. tort law, a licensee is a person who is on the property of another, despite the fact that the property is not open to the general public, because the owner of the property has allowed the li ...
of the New Inn at Peterborough, where he remained for ten years until he retired in 1999. He also was landlord of the Bull and Swan in Stamford, Lincolnshire.
Cricket career
Cantwell also played cricket for Cork Bohemians Cricket Club and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
as a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium bowler. He played five times for Ireland
making his debut in what was his sole
first-class match versus
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
at
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
in 1956, scoring 31 and 17. His last match for Ireland was against
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...
in July 1959.
Death
Cantwell died on 8 September 2005 from cancer aged 73. He left a widow Maggie and two children.
His former teams each held a minute's silence for him before their next matches.
Football career statistics
:''Scores and results list Republic of Ireland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Cantwell goal.''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cantwell, Noel
1932 births
2005 deaths
Deaths from cancer in England
Association footballers from County Cork
Coventry City F.C. managers
Association football fullbacks
Irish cricketers
English Football League players
Manchester United F.C. players
Peterborough United F.C. managers
Republic of Ireland association footballers
Republic of Ireland international footballers
West Ham United F.C. players
League of Ireland players
Cork Athletic F.C. players
Republic of Ireland football managers
Republic of Ireland national football team managers
North American Soccer League (1968–1984) coaches
Ireland (FAI) international footballers
London XI players
People educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork
Cricketers from County Cork
Irish expatriate sportspeople in the United States
Republic of Ireland expatriate football managers
Expatriate soccer managers in the United States
FA Cup Final players
Publicans