Billy McCullough was a great Arsenal player from 1958 to 1966 playing 253 league games, who had the great misfortune to play under two managers (Swindin and Wright) who managed to achieve precious little beyond keeping Arsenal in the first division. The league position and cup record were awful, and Arsenal were always seen as a good chance for a Cup shock.
But at least during this time Billy was able to notch up some caps for Northern Ireland. His first was achieved in April 1961 and he played ten times for the province, ending in 1966.
He was replaced at Arsenal by Peter Storey, and when Bertie Mee took over in 1966 he made McCullough (then 31) available for transfer.
Billy made his final appearance for Arsenal on 19 March 1966 against Manchester United, away, wherein he was substituted and replaced by Peter Simpson. Arsenal lost 2-1.
Billy then moved to Millwall in August 1966, and later played for Bedford Town, Cork Celtic and Derry City. He has now reached the wonderful age of 84, and we wish him well.
19 March 1898: First play-off for the Sheriff of London Charity Shield; set up to be played between a top amateur and a professional side in England once a year. The income from the game went to hospitals and charities. Arsenal subsequently won it four times before it transmuted into the Charity Shield until that was forced to stop when it was revealed the FA were guilty of fraud in not properly accounting for its supposed charitable donations.
19 March 1904: Chesterfield 1 Arsenal 0. Despite only three wins out of the last nine from this match on, Arsenal had done enough to win promotion, and remained second seven points above Bristol City in third.
19 March 1914: A torrential downpour hit north London and flooding disrupted part of Arsenal’s ground, causing the collapse of a wall within the ground. Highbury was however fit for use once more on 4 April.
19 March 1923: Arsenal became the first English club to host an international against a non-UK team. The result was England 6 Belgium 1.
19 March 1966: Last league game for Billy McCullough. He had played 258 league games across eight seasons before moving on to Millwall. He later played for Bedford Town, Cork Celtic and Derry City.
19 March 1979: Southampton 1 Arsenal 1, FA Cup 6th round. It was Arsenal’s 8th FA Cup game in the season, but they had still only made it through three rounds. Price got the Arsenal goal.
19 March 1980: Gothenburg 0 Arsenal 0 in the Cup Winners’ Cup quarter final 2nd leg.
19 March 1988: Arsenal 1 Newcastle 1. After the revival following 3 wins in a row, Arsenal started a run of four successive draws, scoring two letting in (obviously) two. In this game Groves got the goal.
19 March 1992: Jack Kelsey died in London aged 62. He not only played 327 league games for Arsenal but also 41 games for Wales and played in goal for GB against Europe in 1955.
19 March 1994: Southampton 0 Arsenal 4. Final appearance for Anders Limpar; Wright scored a hat trick for the second league match running.
19 March 1981: Kolo Toure born. He played over 200 games for Arsenal before moving on to Manchester City and Liverpool.
19 March 2000: Arsenal 2 Tottenham 1. The start of eight successive victories which secured Arsenal second place and a continuation of the European adventure. Armstrong scored for Tottenham and an own goal for Arsenal, and Henry got a penalty.
19 March 2003: Valencia 2 Arsenal 1. As a result of this match Arsenal failed to progress beyond the second group stage.
19 March 2005: Blackburn 0 Arsenal 1. The 5th match of the unbeaten run that lasted until 11 May. Van Persie scored to leave Arsenal in third, 14 points above Everton in fourth place.
19 March 2011: Having re-signed for Arsenal as emergency cover in goal Lehmann was selected as the substitute keeper against WBA. The result was a 2-2 draw with Arshavin and van Persie scoring.
19 March 2016: Everton 0 Arsenal 2 (Iwobi and Welbeck scored). The result came after successive defeats to Watford (at home in the cup) and Barcelona away in the Champions League. It was the start of a nine match run unbeaten, to the end of the season, in which Arsenal scored 19 goals including five goals for Sanchez in four consecutive games.
Keep well Flint and thank you !