'I’m just glad I got the chance to play for Derry City’ - Liam Coyle reflects on stellar career and what could've been

As a teenage striker, Coyle became an immediate sensation when he burst onto the senior football scene on November 6th 1988, scoring a second half hat-trick against Cobh on his Derry City debut.

A new Brandywell hero had emerged as the Candy Stripes clinched an unprecedented treble and Coyle collected the PFAI Young Player of the Year and his one and only international cap for Northern Ireland, following in the footsteps of his father, Fay - a prolific goalscorer for his hometown club in the 1960s,

Attracting the attention of Manchester United and Benfica amongst others, the former St Peter’s High School and Long Tower Boys’ PS pupil appeared destined for stardom.

And yet disaster struck on September 13th 1989 when Dundalk’s Peter Eccles’ robust challenge at Oriel Park forced Coyle into early retirement with a knee injury and with it a chance to test himself with one of the giants of European football.

Coyle openly admits he battled with depression after his career appeared to be cruelly taken from him and one would be forgiven for harbouring resentment.

However, in a frank and honest interview, Coyle, who celebrates his 52nd birthday today, reveals all is now forgiven as he takes a nostalgic look back at that unsavoury incident and the crowning moments of his career, considering the glory years didn’t exactly end at that point!

Coyle later received a handwritten letter from Eccles who apologised for preventing him from fulfilling his potential and the Brandywell native makes the admission he intentionally ‘volleyed’ the defender when he returned to action for Derry three years later.

The League of Ireland legend also explains why he ‘hated’ playing against the likes of Man United and Barcelona in those infamous glamour friendlies, why he was forced to leave his job as a bartender and names the best player he’s ever played against in Irish football!

A two-times League of Ireland title winner, he’s won FAI Cup winners’ medals during three different decades, the Opel Soccer Writers’ Personality of the Year (1995) and the PFAI Player of the Year (1997).

And he’s scored some memorable goals including the 30 yard spectacular strike at St Mel’s Park in Athlone in 1995 and the extra-time goal against Finn Harps in the 2003 relegation play-off but which goal does he rank highest?

We find out who he idolised while growing up and what he remembers from that iconic nutmeg on Barcelona great, Carlos Puyol.

“That thing with Puyol has taken on a life of its own,” said Coyle. “And the thing is, I never actually nut-megged him. I tried to nutmeg at the end. I turned him about three or four times. The next thing someone came down the side and he came around and I tried to nutmeg him . It nearly went through but it didn’t.

“As it goes on people remember it differently and I don’t put people off the notion! The fact I turned him about three or four times, basically at that stage we hadn’t had the ball for about 15 minutes and then we got a throw-in down in the corner. I just said to myself, ‘I’ll try and hold onto it here for as long as I can’.

“Puyol didn’t want anyone going around him, he was that type of player, he was thick. I thought I would hold onto the ball for two or three minutes to take a bit of pressure off.

“I threw him a couple of dummies and he went for them. The next thing there were about three or four players around me. That’s when I did try and nutmeg him.”

Did you enjoy playing against the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United?

“The European matches were enjoyable to play in. You always know you’re not going to be the favourites. It was the friendly games I hated playing in.

“I hated playing the Real Madrids, the Barcelonas, the Man Uniteds - I hated playing in them because you knew you were going to get a chasing and you can’t get a kick at anyone, you can’t compete with anyone and at the end of it there’s nothing.

“For the fans it’s great but I hated those games. In the European matches you knew you were always underdogs but at least it was competitive. You could go off at the end of it and say, ‘We were beat by the better team’ but the friendly games just annoyed me.

"The first thing came into my head was ‘We’ll not get a touch of the ball here’. You know technically they are away ahead of any of the players you have around you. So basically you’re going out there trying to keep the score down.

“I was 33 when Barca came to the Brandywell and the best about was we were going to Maribor straight after the match. I think that was a Tuesday so we were going to Dublin to catch a plane straight after the match to go to Maribor on the Thursday night in nearly 100 degree heat.

“I was absolutely cracking. I was going off my head about it. There was a more important match to be played on Thursday.

“Look, it was great for the fans to see people like Ronaldinho, people like Xavi and Kluivert. It was absolutely brilliant for the town and the club but when you’re a player and at the age that I was, I was thinking I could be doing without this.

“I don’t want to sound like an old grinch and say it was terrible altogether but when you’re playing in it and boys are running past you and you can’t tackle them it annoys you at times.

“We’re told before the match we can’t tackle so straight away the competitive edge is gone. The big glamour ties were harder to get yourself up for.”

Were you ever one for swapping shirts at the end of the game?

“I have a Benfica jersey somewhere in the house. I have one Derry jersey - my FAI Cup Final jersey from 2002. I gave all my other jerseys away.

“I didn’t play in the Real Madrid game but in the Barcelona game the jerseys they wore, they kept them. They just threw in a box of jerseys, unopened still in the plastic still on and that’s basically the one I have upstairs. It’s number seven which my Jack was telling me might have been Xavi wearing seven that day.

“I didn’t keep much. I gave everything away. I also have a jersey from Newcastle when we played them down in Dublin in the tournament.

What’s your favourite memory on the pitch?

“My first real memory I have is playing for Brandywell Harps out in Maydown in a tournament down in the Molin’s Club which sort of made my name. We won 13-3 and I scored eight in the final.

“We played Celtic Swifts and Roy McCreadie was playing and Declan McDowell, Jimmy McGroarty and Marty Morrison - all senior players.

“Brandywell Harps weren’t favourites to win and after that game Derry came looking for me straight away. That was a Friday night and the presentation was on Saturday night. So I had a few drinks on Saturday night and I was lying in my bed on Sunday morning.

"Derry were playing in the Ulster Tyre Cup up in Ballybofey against Finn Harps. My mother came up the stairs and said ‘Jim McLaughlin is down the stairs’. I never got into the house until 2am or 3a.m. I came downstairs and Jim said, ‘Right get your boots you’re coming to Ballybofey’.

“Obviously my Derry City debut when I scored a hat-trick, that was absolutely massive for me and it changed my footballing life. I won the treble in my first season and winning the league in ‘97 was massive. Coming back from Glentoran and helping Derry win the league, that was a major thing too.

“There are probably too many to name, especially playing for Derry where I had a lot of good times.”

What was your biggest achievement?

“The treble. When you look back at it now,it’s 31 years and I don’t think it will be done this year either if we don’t have any football, so you’re talking 32 or maybe 33 years before anybody gets another crack at it again.

“I was only 20 at the time. I had broken into the team and by the time we had won everything I was still only 20. That was unbelievable.

“You look back on it now and appreciate how big an achievement that was and how difficult it was. So that ranks as my favourite moment of all time with Derry.

“When you’re in the middle of it you don’t really realise the magnitude of it. It’s only looking back you realise how good of players you were playing with. That team was just special in its own way.

“When you look at how many players get brought into a club now at the start of a season, you’re talking 14 or 15 players. Jim brought five or six in and it was seen as if he was buying the league.

“Everybody forgets you had Paul Curran, Pascal, Paul Carlyle, Paul Hegarty, I came in from playing with Brandywell Harps, Felix was there, Stuart Gauld, big Jack (Kaey) so there was the nucleus of a team that was already there.

“What the Dublin boys brought was a winning mentality and it rubbed off on everyone around the club at that time. Doolin, Neville, Kevin Brady, Noel Larkin, they were born winners. They did everything with Shamrock Rovers and they brought that winning mentality to Derry. We were winning matches but we were playing some great stuff.”

How did it feel as a Derry man winning a domestic treble?

“The year before I was going to all the games. I was up playing with Finn Harps but when I wasn’t playing I was going away to the Derry matches. So I was travelling with all those fans a year before.

“We were only a new club. We were only in the league four years and to bring those crowds and that energy to the league. Before Derry came into the League of Ireland was on its knees. It was drab, dour and then Derry came along with the likes of Da Gama, Krstic and Da Silva and it just gave the league a bigger profile. The fans were travelling in their thousands.

“I went from working in the bar at the Oak Grove to everybody knowing me which meant I couldn’t work in the bar. It was absolutely crazy. I had to get my hours cut because it was becoming too difficult. You couldn’t get working as everyone just wanted to talk about the football.

“You couldn’t go out to a bar, people just wanted to talk to you all the time. That’s how big it was at the time - it was massive. And the fact you actually go and win the league and the cup and the league cup,it just heightened it even more.”

Did you become a Brandywell pin-up like Alex Krstic or Pascal Vaudequin?

“We certainly weren’t Yuguslavian or Parisien pin-ups. There were some of us who were just pasty white Brandywell or Creggan men (laughs).

“It was all new. I think people could identify with me because I came from Brandywell, I was playing D&D football six months before, I was travelling with the fans and I was one of the people supporting the team so I think people could identify with me more than others. I think that’s why the Derry fans took to me so well.”

Who was the best manager you ever worked under?

“Obviously Jim (McLaughlin) is the most important person in all our football careers - those who played under him.

“I played under Felix (Healy) and won the league under him. Kevin Mahon, for me, was absolutely brilliant towards the end of my career and I can’t speak highly enough of him. Tony O’Doherty brought me back to Derry. It was Roy Coyle I signed for but it was basically Tony who brought me back. He took over and managed and he was great for me.

“But McLaughlin was just on a different level when it came to man-management and getting the best out of players and knowing what made all the players tick. He didn’t have to say a whole lot, didn’t have to do a whole lot, but always knew the right thing to say at the right time. He was just a genius.”

Who was the best player or toughest opponent?

“The best player I played against in League of Ireland football was Paul Osam. Now I played with Paul Doolin and against him so I’m not going to pick him. Since I played with him I would be biased.

“Paul Doolin is the best League of Ireland player of all time. Now I’m not saying Dooler is the best player I ever played with but any team that ‘Dooler’ ever played with he made them better. He was a born winner. He was horrible to play against. When he was playing with us he was a box to box midfielder but he was scoring 18 goals a season.

“The best player in my time, however, overall was probably Paul Osam. That Pats team he played in had some top players in it like Eddie Gormley, John McDonnell, Mick Moody, Trevor Croly they were unbelievable.

“And big ‘Oso’ went from an outside left winger to the best central midfielder in the country - he was that good.

“Because I’m mates with Dooler I’m not going to say him but if you look at what he’s won at every football club - he was just an absolute animal of a football player. ‘Dooler’ was coming to the end of his career when I was coming back into Derry again. I played against Osam for longer and he was a great player.”

The best player you’ve played with?

“The best player I ever played with was Felix (Healy). He was on a different level to the rest of us. He had played at the World Cup and in England. I grew up watching Felix. He used to come to the Long Tower Club and do presentations when I was a kid.

“I watched him play for Coleraine and in the summer cups for Brandywell Harps and Bluebell Celtic and I idolised him. I played with him in a few games in the summer cup but when you’re young you don’t appreciate it as much.

"When I stepped up to Derry and saw the level he was at, he was so good - left foot, right foot, passing the ball long, scoring free-kicks, playing balls round corners for you to get on the end of. There are other players who were top, top players but Felix was on a different level.

“Felix was that good of a footballer he could understand where things were and could see things early. I’d like to think I was on that wavelength at times,”

What’s the goal you enjoyed scoring the most?

“In terms of importance, the Harps goal because it kept us up. If it hadn’t been for that win I don’t think Derry would ever have got the Stephen Kenny years. It would’ve been a struggle to get back up if we had got relegated that season.

“So importance-wise, definitely, but in terms of enjoying a goal, I used to say it was the Athlone goal when we drew 1-1 and lost the league on the last day of the season.

"I used to say that was my best goal and it was a good goal but it never won us anything. Looking back on it now I think the cup final goal in 2002 where we were underdogs against Shamrock Rovers. No-one expected us to win. I played in five finals before that, never scored, so as I get older I think that goal has taken on more significance for me.”

Have you any regrets?

“Possibly. I think every footballer looks back and thinks they could’ve done certain things differently. I wish I had been a better trainer. I wish I didn’t take it as seriously at times. I wish I hadn’t fallen out with certain people at times. At the end of the day, we all retire and it’s over and done with and no one cares.

“Football-wise I don’t think I would’ve changed too much. I played the way I played. I think people enjoyed watching me and I don’t regret playing the way I did. I regret that maybe my preparation and attitude towards training wasn’t better. That came later on as I got older I became more aware of that and wish I had taken that on board while I was a bit younger.

“In terms of injuries I don’t look back and think I wish I had of got to England. I was just glad I got the chance to play for Derry. That was the way I looked at it.”

Have you any resentment towards Peter Eccles for THAT tackle?

“The funny thing about it was, when I came back to Derry after Omagh (1993), one of the first matches I played in was against Shamrock Rovers at the Brandywell and Peter Eccles was playing.

"For 89 minutes he kicked me from pillar to post and with about two minutes to go I played a one-two and went to get around him and he blocked me with his elbow. He fell over so, as I was running on, I just met him with a volley. I got sent off! I just walked off.

“People said to me after ‘You must’ve been waiting for that’. I wasn’t. I was just frustrated with the match that day. I wrote the book (‘Born to Play’) years later and wrote about the tackle.

“I actually got a letter from Peter Eccles saying he was so sorry he made that tackle and that he didn’t realise it was that bad of a tackle. Football is all about emotions at the time and you say things and do things. At the end of it all, as long as you can hold you head up and say you made a mistake and I appreciate Peter sending me a letter saying he was sorry for, as he said in the letter, ‘depriving me from going to England’.

“It never bothered me after that. The fact I was able to get back to Derry and play, that was all forgot about as far as I was concerned.”