The retirements of O'Neill, Jennings and Whiteside (the latter due to injury) robbed Bingham of his best players. Northern Ireland failed to reach the 1990 and 1994 finals, and he stepped down in November 1993. The final game of the 1994 World Cup qualification campaign was against Republic of Ireland, and was to be marred with sectarianism and controversy. Bingham's men set out to deny the Irish the point they needed to secure qualification ahead of Denmark, with Northern Ireland unable to qualify. Jimmy Quinn's strike was cancelled out by a late Irish equaliser, and after the game there was an ugly exchange between Bingham and Ireland manager, Jack Charlton. Both 1990 and 1994 qualification groups ended with Spain and the Republic qualifying, with Northern Ireland finishing some distance short of the mark.