Glorious Fifties
The 1951/52 season would see Gibbons and St Pats stun Irish football by winning the league championship in their first season. Gibbons was the top scorer in the league with 26 goals in 22 games. In May 1952, only 15 months after playing non league football, Gibbons made his debut for the Republic of Ireland senior team in Cologne against Germany. In 1952/53 Gibbons was again the League's top scorer with 22 goals in 22 games, including five in one game against Raich Carter's Cork Athletic. The 1953/54 season was a disappointing season for Gibbons as he struggled with only 9 goals. He did however win his 2nd full international cap in a World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg .
He was controversially dropped for the 1954 FAI Cup final and St. Pats lost to Drumcondra. In 1954/55 Gibbons scored 28 goals as St. Pats won the league for the second time. The following season he again topped the league scoring charts with 21 goals as St. Pats won an amazing 3rd league title in their first five years . He earned the last two of his four international caps in the autumn of 1955 in games with Yugoslavia and Spain . Throughout his St Pats career Gibbons played many times for the League of Ireland selection at a time when they were seen as equal to full international games. Gibbons only played a handful of games for St. Pats in 1956/57 season but still managed to score 2 goals to bring his St. Pats tally to 108 goals in little over 5 seasons.
Read more about this topic: Shay Gibbons
Famous quotes containing the words glorious and/or fifties:
“When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality, they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man’s name live for thousands of years. But above this level, far above, separated by an abyss, is the level where the highest things are achieved. These things are essentially anonymous.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)