From NUFC .com Willie McFaul RIP please log in to view this image Former goalkeeper, coach and manager Willie McFaul has sadly died just days after his 82nd birthday. Willie, or Iam as he was also known, was a goalkeeper famously signed by United despite conceding seven goals for Linfield in a friendly match at SJP in September 1966. Making his debut in a 0-2 home defeat by Liverpool in November of the same year, Iam had become first choice between the posts by the summer of 1968 and played in all but one of the club's 59 games that season. He appeared in all twelve games of the club's first European adventure, doing his bit to get United into the final with a penalty save against Rangers at Ibrox. Future Fairs Cup campaigns in the following two seasons saw Iam maintain his 100% appearance record, scoring in the penalty shootout against Pecsi Dozsa in 1970/71, when the referee summoned United back from the dressing room to complete the sequence of kicks - despite the Hungarians having already won on penalties. Often featured on TV as the goalkeeper who concedes two goals at Hereford in 1972, Willie played what was to be his final game for the club at the end of the 1974/75 season, moving on to the SJP coaching staff. Installed for the first time as caretaker manager (briefly) in 1977, McFaul then took over again in 1985 following the abrupt departure of Jack Charlton and was soon handed the job on a permanent basis. Giving youth team startlet Paul Gascoigne his first senior start, Iam (by now universally known as Willie) kept the side together despite the departures of messrs Waddle, Beardsley and later Gascoigne. However, a spending spree ahead of the 1988/89 season proved to be his downfall as new boys Dave Beasant, Andy Thorn and John Hendrie failed to improve his side and he was dismissed following a run of poor results. McFaul returned to his native Northern Ireland and worked as an Irish FA coach and with local sides before accepting a FIFA -backed posting to become the coach of Guam, an island in the South Pacific. By 2004 Willie was back coaching in his homeland, as well as scouting for Norwich City during Glenn Roeder's time in Norfolk. He returned to SJP in 2009 to take part in the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Fairs Cup victory and confessed that he was "delighted and a wee bit emotional" to be reunited with his colleagues and the trophy
He was the keeper we had in the Supermac era. He gave everything he had for us. Can't ask for much more. RIP Iam.
