By Nathan Jackson
July 31 2008

Sammy McIlroy is one of the few men to both captain and manage his country. However, his career as a manager has certainly been mixed, doing well with Conference sides but failing miserably at various other clubs, including Stockport County. He is also one of the few men to have played for both of Manchester's Premier clubs. Sammy McIlroy is one the few players to claim the "pleasure" of playing for both Manchester United and Manchester City. Born in Belfast in 1954, McIlroy became the last of the "Busby Babes" when Sir Matt Busby signed him in the early seventies. He made his debut for the Red Devils in a thrilling 3-3 derby day draw against Manchester City in the 1971/2 season. However, his appearances would  mainly be restricted to appearances off of the bench for the first few years.

Starting out as a striker, McIlroy shifted to the midfield in the late 70's and this helped him establish himself in the first team. He ended a ten year association with the red half of Manchester in 1981, leaving United after 342 appearances and 57 goals to go to Stoke City. His time at Stoke lasted four seasons, making 133 appearances in the process. During this period he also represented Northern Ireland at the 1982 World Cup. He later left Stoke, moving to Orgryte IS in Sweden in 1986.

That came just after he had captained his country in the 1986 World Cup, a fine honour for any player. McIlory played just seven times for Orgryte before he returned to England in the same season, joining Manchester. He scored jus one in his 13 appearances at Maine Road before transferring to Bury.

Bury were to prove to be his penultimate club in the Football League. He spent three years at Gigg Lane before leaving for his final League club, Preston North End. Two seasons and twenty appearances later were followed by a trip to the non-League. He joined Northwich Victoria, making 8 appearances before retiring. However, this period saw him take his first managerial role, becoming the player-manager of the Vics for the 1992/3 season.

Macclesfield Town became admirers of the Northern Irishman and took him on board as their manager in 1993. It wasn't long before he had turned their fortunes around and they won promotion to the Football League in 1997. A successful first season in Division Three saw the Silkmen remain undefeated at home, winning a second straight promotion in the process.

However, McIlroy couldn't stop them slipping straight back into Division Three at the first attempt. He left Moss Rose in 2000 to become manager of his country, adding his name to a very select list of people who have captained and managed their country. However, he did a bit of a crap job as North Ireland failed to win 24 of their 29 games under McIlroy, that run included them failing to score a single goal in the qualifying for Euro 2004.

McIlroy resigned in 2003 with a winning record of just 14.28% and took over at Stockport County. His time at Edgeley Park was equally starved of success and he was lucky not to get the side relegated in the 2003/4 season. The start to the 2004/5 season was even worse and he left the club in November 2004, Stockport were relegated at the end of the season.

A spell out of the game for almost two years eventually saw him take over at Morecambe and his time there has been very successful. He has a winning record of 47.87% at Christie Park and won promotion in his first season, giving Morecambe League football for the first time in their career.

McIlroy will be leading the club into another Football League season and will be hoping for a second promotion in three seasons.