Former Workington Reds manager Tommy Cassidy died this morning after a seven-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Cassidy, who was a popular player during his career for Newcastle United, Burnley and Northern Ireland had lost his partner Rose, earlier this year.
He was in charge of Workington Reds from 2001 to 2007 and during that time the club enjoyed two promotions, reaching National North.
The 73-year-old Belfast-born Cassidy had brief managerial roles at Newcastle Blue Star, Blyth Spartans and Whitby Town after leaving Reds but could not repeat his success of his time at Borough Park.
His playing career had started in Belfast with Glentoran and it was from there that he moved to Newcastle United in 1970 and spent ten years with the Magpies, playing 180 games for them and scoring 22 goals.
During his career on Tyneside he was capped for Northern Ireland and picked up 24 caps and a £30,000 move to Burnley, freshly relegated to Division Three, in the summer of 1980, did not initially harm his international career.
But over the following few seasons it became clear that Bingham was favouring players featuring regularly at a higher level. However, in November 1981 he was called up to replace Martin O’Neill for the final World Cup Qualifier against Israel, a must win game to ensure a place in Spain.
Northern Ireland won 1-0, and Cassidy travelled with the squad to the finals. In Spain he made a single appearance, coming off the bench for the injured Sammy McIlroy, and helping to steady 10-man Northern Ireland, during the historic 1–0 win over the hosts.
Spain brought the curtain down on Cassidy’s somewhat up-and-down international career in the most glorious of fashions.
Having helped Burnley to the Third Division title Cassidy brought his Football League career to a close in 1983, before moving to play for APOEL in Cyprus, where he won the Cup and the Super Cup.
He later managed the club, leading them to the Cypriot League Championship, but left when he blew the whistle on high-level corruption in the game.
He returned to the north-east of England to manage Gateshead, and was linked with the Newcastle job in 1992 prior to the arrival of Kevin Keegan but in 1994, he returned to the Oval as manager of a demoralised Glentoran, and helped them to an early success in the Gold Cup.
The rest of his time with the Glens proved difficult and under pressure from the fans, Cassidy left in December 1997.
In 1998 Cassidy was appointed manager of Ards, but was sacked in October 1999 when the board weren’t satisfied with their prospects of promotion from the First Division – they were second at the time.
After two seasons as manager of Sligo he briefly scouted Irish League players for then Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIlroy, before returning to management with the Reds who were in NPL Division One.
It proved to be his longest, most successful and enjoyable time as a manager.
