william john willie irvine born 18 june 1943 is a former professional footballer who played as a centre forward born in eden county antrim into a large family he grew up in the nearby town of carrickfergus he did well at school but chose to pursue a career in professional football and initially played for local club linfield after a spell in amateur football irvine travelled to england for a trial with burnley at the age of 16 he was offered a professional deal and spent three years playing for the youth and reserve teams before making his senior debut at the end of the 196263 season over the following seasons irvine became a regular feature of the burnley team and in the 196566 campaign he scored 29 goals and was the highest goalscorer in the football league first divisionirvine lost his place in the burnley team after suffering a broken leg during a cup tie in 1967 and never properly regained his form for the club he was later transfer listed and joined local rivals preston north end in march 1968 in the football league second division he began to score goals again and was prestons top goalscorer in the 196869 season despite suffering a serious leg injury which forced him to miss much of the campaign when alan ball was named preston manager in the summer of 1970 irvine found himself out of the team he joined brighton hove albion in july 1971 after impressing during a loan spell earlier in the year he moved to halifax town midway through the 197273 season but left the club after six months irvine ended his football career with a spell at semiprofessional great harwood before retiring at the age of 29in addition to playing club football irvine also represented the northern ireland national football team he won 23 caps for his country scoring eight goals after retiring from football he ran his own doityourself shop but suffered from severe depression when the business collapsed irvine spent time in hospital after taking an overdose of medication but recovered and later worked as a community worker before becoming a window cleaner as of 2010 he works fulltime in an aerospace factory and also gives guided tours of burnleys stadium turf moor on matchdays