Leeside Legends: Even when captaining Man United, Noel Cantwell never forgot his Cork roots

“Don’t worry,” replied Cantwell. “I knew I would be able to catch it, I play cricket for Ireland.”

“Two of his brothers, Frank and Gerry, played interprovincial cricket for Munster,” wrote Ger Siggins, Irish cricket historian. “But he picked up five Ireland caps from 1956 to 1959 when he was summering back home in Cork. A left-hand bat with Bohemians, his second cap against the 1957 West Indians saw him record a glorious dismissal — caught Frank Worrell, bowled Garfield Sobers 0. His highest score came against New Zealand the next summer when he made 40.”
"The weight-training gave you tremendous confidence. You felt stronger and you felt good. How one looks and how one appears is always very important. I think it helped when we got away from the baggy shorts and got all the good gear.”

“One afternoon, Noel Cantwell started to talk to me in the bath after training,” wrote Eamon Dunphy in A Strange Kind of Glory. “ ‘Is that it,’ he asked of the training routine. I told him it was. He was incredulous. I was Irish, he could confide in me. Doesn’t anybody ever talk about the game here? Why isn’t the training organised? What about ballwork? Do you ever see Busby? Doesn’t anybody think about the game? Was that it? A bit of running, head tennis and ‘round the back’ for a bloody free for all. The frustration poured out of him. He shook his head in disbelief as I assured him that, yes, that was it, and, no, there wasn’t any talking about the game.”

“The great Noel…Matt Busby would say….would captain United on cup final day…in ’63 we beat Leicester City…Noel Cantwell our skipper that day…Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel…that was the name of our hero Cantwell.”

During his last season at Old Trafford, his leadership qualities were acknowledged in another forum when he was elected chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA). He relinquished the union job in 1967 to succeed Jimmy Hill as manager of Coventry City.
