How Derry City won the league in 1997: Felix Healy's Heroes

Those were the words of Derry City chairman, Mr Paul Diamond on April 19th 1997 when the Brandywell club clinched the Premier Division

Championship trophy for the second time in its history and they ring true today, 23 years later as it was a feat which has yet to be repeated!

The Brandywell club has since gone on to win three FAI Cups, seven League Cups and the First Division title but while those victories have brought many cherished memories, nothing has come close to winning the ‘Holy Grail’- the top flight Championship.

It was a convincing 2-0 victory over St Patrick’s Athletic at Brandywell Stadium which sealed the deal for Felix Healy’s troops who won the title with two games to spare - finishing an impressive 10 points ahead of their nearest rivals, Bohemians!

A young Peter Hutton became the first Derry man to captain his hometown club to the league title and while the team, made up of largely homegrown talent promised so much, the title win proved to be the climax for this team.

Indeed, the following year Derry City finished ninth, just one point ahead of UCD who survived a relegation play-off, and a disappointing 28 points off the eventual champions, St Pat’s.

The national media didn’t give Healy’s 1996/97 team much hope of success before a ball was kicked given the club had ‘gone to the wall’ two years previously and the Brandywell man had assembled his squad on a shoestring budget.

Healy, who was a key part of the Candy Stripes team which won an unprecedented treble in 1989, had returned to manage his beloved club to the title and claimed it was his ‘biggest achievement’ in football.

Two years earlier Derry had suffered heartache on the most dramatic of finales to the league campaign, losing to Athlone on the final day of the season and conceding the title to Dundalk by a single point!

The Candy Stripes entered St Mel’s Park with a strong grip on the league trophy that day but left devastated a matter of hours later as their wait for a second championship win slipped agonisingly away.

The frustrations and regrets from the 1994-95 season were still fresh in the mind and Healy admitted, the club’s league title victory two years later had banished that nightmare to the history books.

“We’ve won it with two matches remaining and that puts an end to the nightmare we experienced in Athlone two seasons ago,” claimed the triumphant City boss afterwards.

And for the first time in his football career, Healy was actually lost for words afterwards when interviewed in the Brandywell dressing room.

“I don’t know what to say,” he declared. “What do I say? I can’t take anything away from the players, the directors or the fans, it’s a great night for Derry and for Derry people and this is the biggest thing I’ve ever achieved in football,” he added.

“We’ve enjoyed magnificent team spirit this season. We have a very, very fit squad and team with the will to win. We have the best players in the country and what’s also important, those players will all be here next season.”

Derry were undefeated in games against all their rivals in the top five during the league title run in with a 1-0 win over Cork City (Hargan), two draws against Shelbourne 2-2 at Brandywell (Sean Hargan 2) and 1-1 at Tolka Park (Gary Beckett), a 1-1 draw with St Pat’s at Richmond (Liam Coyle) and the 2-0 win over the Saints which clinched the title.

The match itself was ‘far from spectacular’ but Derry controlled proceedings with St Pat’s rarely threatening Tony O’Dowd’s goal, save for a late Martin Reilly snapshot which the Derry keeper smothered.

Derry were cruising and when Hutton found Gary Beckett in midfield,the Enniskillen man’s deft touch set Dubliner, James Keddy scampering up the left flank. Having turned inside St Pat’s right back Willie Burke, Keddy drove a right footed shot into the net to finish off a fluent move on 15 minutes.

At the start of the second half Liam Coyle held the ball up before dispatching a precise lobbed pass over the Saints’ defence. While they appealed for offside against Beckett, Hutton burst through on the blind side, controlled the ball and sent an angled shot into the net to guarantee the championship trophy.

It was the insurance goal and Derry’s young skipper’s 13th league goal of the campaign. 'Pizza, who was crowned 'player of the year',' finished the season with 15 league goals, two ahead of Beckett who won 'young player of the year' - a unique achievement for the club! In fact Beckett chased his skipper all the way in the race for the golden boot that year, scoring twice on the final day against Bray Wanderers!

‘The celebrations not surprisingly lasted until the small hours of Sunday morning as in excess of 6,000 Candy Stripes fans acknowledged the clinching of the Premier Division trophy,” read the ‘Journal’ match report at the time.’

‘For the first time since 1989 the major honour will rest in the Brandywell trophy cabinet and now all eyes can focus on what would be a truly magnificent ‘double’ should Derry defeat Shelbourne in the FAI Cup Final at Dalymount Park on May 4th next.’

The ‘double’ success didn’t materialise, Derry losing 2-0 to Shels at Lansdowne Road but, according to City midfielder, Paul Hegarty at the time, the cup was simply a ‘bonus’.

“This is the main prize, the cup final is only a bonus but to win the league, when at one stage my career appeared to be standing still and going nowhere, is a great achievement as far as I’m concerned,” said Hegarty who was signed from Finn Harps by Healy to ‘ressurect’ his career.

It was reported at the time Derry would benefit to the tune of £100,000 from UEFA for winning the Premier Division title and while the FAI Cup final appearance would net Derry a further £20,000, City’s share of the tournament involving Newcastle United, PSV Eindhoven, Newcastle United and Celtic was also significant for the club’s coffers.

An editorial from ‘Journal’ sports reporter, Arthur Duffy, at the time summed up the mood in the city: 'The jubliant scenes which were witnessed at at the Brandywell on Saturday night brought back memories of that unforgettable 1989 season. But on this occasion the Premier Division Championship win has to be considered even more significant.

‘Jim McLaughlin’s superb side - littered with talented and very experienced personnel - was purchased with one objective in mind. And while that panel enjoyed phenomenal success, who honestly could have believed that the current Felix Healy crop would reap such a handsome harvest during the 1996/97 season?

‘And those fans who raced onto the Brandywell pitch after the final whistle to congratulate ‘Healy’s Heroes’ were entitled to celebrate what can only be described as an amazing success so far this term.

‘With the club drifting so close to going out of existence as voluntary liquidation followed before Healy, Diamond et al took control with stringent financial cost cutting. Healy was forced to operate on a shoestring budget with the bare minimum of players.

He proved the point that local players can succeed at senior level. Healy without doubt managed his budget well. Having carefully scanned the talent available in the League of Ireland, he also took full advantage of the controversial Jean-Marc Bosman European Court ruling and signed Tommy Dunne,Gavin Dykes and James Keddy. Of course he lost Pascal Vaudequin through the same trap door.

Celebration time it was at the Brandywell and those celebrations will continue, before, during and after the forthcoming FAI Cup final and what a day that promises to be in Dublin on May 4th next.’

Felix Healy, remarkably. the following night was starring in the hit musical, ‘Grease’, at Derry’s Rialto, ditching his le coq sportif training gear for a white tuxedo to perform ‘Beauty School Dropout’ in the dream sequence made famous by Frankie Valley. But Derry’s title triumph certainly wasn’t a dream.

And while the team came up short in its tremendous ‘double’ bid that year as they lost out in their third FAI Cup final in the space of four years, that season Derry City were by some distance the best team in the land

“To put it mildly, there isn’t a team close to us as far as I’m concerned,” said City centre half, Gavin Dykes. “We battle and fight for each other, we never give up and we bust guts to win matches, home or away, I believe we are the best team in the league by far.”

Click here for a look at some of the picture coverage from that famous day.