426: Kevin Moran, Ireland, Panini Italia ’90 World Cup

Today Richard Allinson takes a look at a multi-talented sportsman in some depth but still only really scratches the surface on his interesting career. As well as everything Rich covers today’s subject sits on the board of his brother’s highly successful medical surgery, which boasts such clients as Jon Bon Jovi and Josh van der Flier, and formed his own sports agency alongside former Manchester United team-mate Jesper Olsen. However, despite what the good people of Panini seemed to think, he never played for Sheffield Wednesday. I suppose we all make mistakes. Over to Rich.

“Phil Neville was good enough to play cricket for England y’know…” I have heard this story a surprising amount of times, from a surprising amount of people, very few of whom I imagine actually saw a 15-year-old Phil Neville play cricket. However, regardless of the merits of Neville the younger’s googly, he didn’t play professionally in two different sports unlike today’s subject. 

Initially this post was going to be wholly about the ignominy of being the first man to be sent off in an FA Cup final (more of which later), but as it turns out, Kevin Moran was already used to a showpiece occasion way before Manchester United played Everton at Wembley in 1985. Moran signed for the Red Devils in 1978 after only one appearance for Bohemians in his native Ireland three years prior and in the intervening period, he managed to win the Universities Championship in 1976 when the Irish side beat the Scottish Universities in the final. For most people, winning a competition like this would be the peak of their teenage sporting years, but it was not enough for big Kev as he was also establishing himself as a household name in Gaelic football. 

I profess to know very little (i.e. nothing) about Gaelic football, but what I have uncovered in writing this piece is that Kevin Moran was seemingly bloody good at it. Firstly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Moran was the first person to be registered with an English football league club and play in an All-Ireland final. I’m really shocked that such Irishmen as Liverpool’s John Aldridge, Barnsley’s Mick McCarthy or London’s Clinton Morrison weren’t also dual-code heroes. In total (according to Wikipedia) Moran won three Leinster titles, two All Ireland titles, one NFL title (not the shoulder-padded whooping and hollering American nonsense), and one All Star title. As I say, I know sod all about the sport, but considering he only played the game for five years that seems to be an excellent return. However, despite having achieved all of this success in his homeland, the lure of playing for one of the world’s biggest football clubs was too much and he was to soon move to Dave Sexton’s Manchester United.

And so onto him booting Peter Reid. Going into the 1985 FA Cup final, Moran wasn’t sure of his place in the Man United side as he had returned from injury only a couple of games before, however, come kick off he was passed fit and lined up alongside fellow Irishman “Ooh Aah” Paul McGrath in the heart of the United defence. The game was locked at 0-0 with 15 minutes left on the clock when McGrath under hit a pass to Moran, the loose ball was picked up by Peter Reid, and although he was about 40 yards out he had pretty much a clear run at goal. Out of nowhere Big Kev launched himself at Reid sending him into a full mid-air 360 before he landed in a heap on the Wembley turf. It is the sort of challenge that was commonplace back when football was good and wouldn’t always result in a sending off, and even in commentary John Motson suggested that he thought it was worthy of a yellow card. Moran himself later said that if he had thought he’d hurt Reid he’d have been the first one to go over to him, but that he didn’t really think the tackle was particularly out of the ordinary and just walked away, however, referee Peter Willis took a different view and produced the Cup Final’s first ever red card. The mullet haired Man Utd players protested vigorously at the time and Moran admitted that he lost it briefly in the aftermath.

Ultimately the sending off didn’t cost United as they went on to win the game 1-0 thanks to Norman Whiteside curling home what is, in my opinion at least, the best goal ever scored in an FA Cup Final. After the full-time whistle Ron Atkinson pulled Moran to one side and told him that as he’d been sent off he wouldn’t be allowed to collect his medal, but encouraged him to go up to the Royal Box with his teammates to celebrate anyway. The chap handing out the medals clearly had no idea about this rule and tried to pass one to Moran, who refused it, presumably because of what Big Ron had told him. Strangely, rather than putting it back in its box and taking it with him, the medal handing out man just left it behind and cleared off home. Thankfully for Moran, the medal was eventually found by a friend of his when Kev was showing him around Wembley but even then they decided to hand it in to the FA rather than just take it with them. Thankfully, despite having had to go through all this palava, Moran was eventually handed it at the start of the next season anyway. If only Ron Atkinson had kept his mouth shut…

Overall in his association football career, Moran played 412 games including a ten-year spell at United where he won two FA Cups and a Charity Shield. He also plied his trade in Spain for a bit with Sporting Gijón, and was part of the Blackburn Rovers side that secured promotion to the Premier League after a 26-year absence from the top tier. He also earned 71 caps for his country, playing at both Euro ‘88 and Italia ‘90 and was in the squad for USA ‘94 despite being 38 years old at the time. So not a bad career, and with a CV like that across two different sports, it is no surprise that Experiencegaelicgames.com’s Paul O’Dea described him as “…one of the greatest athletes of (his) generation.” Not a bad accolade really.