Paul Fennessy

OF THE 600-plus games Eoin Doyle played during his career in different countries, there is only one official attendance he can remember.

The 36,101 that turned out to see Sligo beat Shamrock Rovers 2-0 on penalties after a scoreless draw between the sides over 120 minutes during the 2010 FAI Cup final.

It was not Doyle’s first cup final. He had played the year before in Tallaght and scored in the 2-1 defeat by Sporting Fingal.

Nor was it his last — he also played the following year when Sligo beat Shelbourne 4-1 on penalties.

In England, he was also part of four promotion triumphs — three of which were title wins — and made three appearances in the PFA Team of the Year.

Yet Doyle says that the 2010 game is the most memorable game he was ever involved in.

“It was the first I ever felt like ‘this is proper football’ where it’s a big stadium, big crowd, the roar of the fans and that sort of stuff,” he tells The 42.

Ideally, Doyle would have loved to have made a fourth FAI Cup final appearance next weekend as St Patrick’s Athletic take on Bohemians in the 2023 campaign’s showpiece event.

The original plan was to finish the season with the Saints, but instead, Doyle unexpectedly announced his retirement last July, with his final appearance coming in the Europa Conference League defeat to F91 Dudelange at Richmond Park.

“I don’t miss it, if I’m being honest,” he says. “I feel like I’ve done my time on the pitch.

“Myself and [my wife] Ciara were watching a match yesterday and I just said to her: ‘I can’t believe we used to do that for a living.’ I was just watching it on the telly.

“But I’ve fond memories and no regrets, it was an enjoyable time.”

Doyle cited “personal reasons” for his retirement at the time and is comfortable elaborating now on a difficult period on and off the pitch.

“Ciara’s mam was in palliative care and she passed away in August. So basically, what happened was when she went into the hospice — usually when you go into a hospice it’s two weeks but she lasted two months, and it was really hard for me to juggle family life and football.

“What was happening was, I was missing training. I definitely wasn’t doing the gym work in the afternoons just so I could get back as much as possible to Ciara to relieve her so she could go in and spend as much time with her mam.

“To be fair it got to the stage where I wasn’t performing for Pat’s because I was missing training. I was coming on and making us worse — that’s what it felt like and that’s what it was

“I felt bad for Ciara in the sense that she should just be in there 24/7 with her mam. I took her away from here to England for a decade. She backed me through my whole career. So I thought it was the best option for everyone to pack it up there and then. For me to focus on my kids while Ciara was looking after her mam. That was the reason for the abrupt retirement.

“It was a tough decision but once myself and Ciara talked about it, it was [decided] it had to be done. I’ve no regrets about how it ended. I have to look after the family. That’s always been number one through everything.”

Family is also the primary reason why Doyle doesn’t see himself getting into coaching or management anytime soon.

“I don’t see myself on the grass. But listen, football’s mad, in two years, anything could change my mind.

“I’m mindful of jumping back into football knowing that I’d miss a lot of my kids’ stuff if I do that. Because it’s all in once you’re in and I don’t really want to do that. I’ve missed a lot over the years with playing.

“I’ve loved watching their stuff. I’ve helped out with my eldest lad’s team, training them on Wednesday. I don’t want to miss any of that by taking a job in football.”

Doyle laughs, while recounting a recent exchange: “My little boy asked me the other day why am I not a manager. I said to him: ‘Well, I could go and try to be a manager but you wouldn’t see me very much.’

“He was like ‘okay,’ and then he started slagging me: ‘Sure you’re only on your phone when you’re here anyway.’ I was like: ‘Yeah, that’s a good point’. I had to put the phone down realising what I was doing.”

Not that Doyle can fully sit back and relax now. He currently runs a childcare business, Lily’s, with close friend and ex-Sligo teammate Danny Ventre.

There are four in operation in Dublin, including one at Doyle’s first schoolboy club, Firhouse Carmel. 

“When we open planned we put in movable partition walls. So in the evenings and weekends, the clubs use them as dressing rooms.

“In the mornings my staff come in and open the doors up and it’s open plan for our kids to come in for the childcare.

“It’s a good model and it’s something I’m going to try to replicate now in football clubs across the country if we can.

“I spoke with the FAI and talks are still ongoing with that. They like the idea, so with a bit of funding and imagination, it’s something that could be really positive for football.”

He continues: “Over the years, I’d have been very afraid of retiring because I loved it so much when I was playing.

“I was thinking ‘I can’t believe this has to end one day.’ I would have read books and looked into a lot of things on basically how to not be depressed when you retire – I’m not someone who suffers from it anyway. 

“But to summarise everything I read over the years, it was to make sure you’re busy and occupied when you’re done. I was able to set myself up to be like that.”

*****

A young Doyle pictured playing for Shamrock Rovers. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Doyle can reflect now on a brilliant time in football that encompassed over 200 goals.

“I definitely maximised my career with the ability that I had,” he says.

“I committed my body to it 100%, did the maddest things over the years to make sure I was in prime shape.”

Yet he admits a career in professional football may not have ever happened had it not been for the recession that left him without full-time employment in 2008.

“I’m a qualified electrician so I’ve managed to get the last bit done to get signed off and then there was no work in 2008 and I was part-time at Rovers 21s at the time.

“I only played a couple of games with the 21s and I was up training with the first team in the evenings.

“And then when the work was gone, it was: ‘This is it, I can throw myself into the football.’

“So I was making sure I was in the gym every morning — myself and [ex-Rovers teammate] Simon Madden used to make sure we were up there in the morning with training in the afternoons and evenings with the team. And it paid off, I suppose. I went all in because there was no other choice. There was no option to get a job at the time.”

Doyle came of age at a time when there was not the same level of professionalism in the League of Ireland as there is now.

“I had a great time at Rovers. [Pat] Scully brought me through. He was good craic. And then obviously, Michael O’Neill came in and it felt like the club changed overnight in the sense of Tallaght [becoming the home stadium].

“I came on for Bradser [Stephen Bradley] in the first game in Tallaght and the club got really professional, really quickly.”

The Hoops had a significant number of quality strikers on the books and game time was tough to come by, so a young Doyle sought opportunities elsewhere after a couple of seasons.

He signed for Paul Cook’s Sligo on the recommendation of former Ireland international and ex-Shamrock Rovers assistant caretaker coach, Alan Moore.

From there, Doyle was instrumental in helping to kickstart a highly successive period for the Bit O’Red, appearing in three successive FAI Cup finals, while the club won just the third league title in their history the year after he left.

After an exceptional 2011 season that saw Doyle score 20 goals in 34 Premier Division appearances, clubs across the water began to take notice.

Doyle enjoyed great success playing under Paul Cook at Sligo and Chesterfield. Cathal Noonan Cathal Noonan

Terry Butcher’s Inverness expressed interest, but in the end, Doyle opted to link up with Pat Fenlon’s Hibs.

“When I went over, it wasn’t a great deal,” he recalls. “I could have got that money at Sligo potentially, no problem. But it was just an opportunity to kind of go over and see what you can do and take a punt at it.

“The first game was the derby against Hearts. I came on in the last five or six minutes and the stature of the athletes was night and day compared to Ireland. So I just hammered the gym for the first six months I was there.

“I had an 18-month deal so it was January to the summer obviously at the back end of the season. I just hammered the gym, to try and get my body up to where it should be to be over there and on the pitch.

“I did a number of interviews at the time. I remember being honest with people, especially when the second season started, saying it’s ‘make or break this for me now’.

“‘If I don’t do it now, I’ll be back in Ireland next year. So I’m giving everything I can,’ type of thing and I had a great time.”

Doyle’s appearances in the 2012 and 2013 Scottish Cup finals meant he had featured in a cup final in either Ireland or Scotland five years in a row, though he came out on the losing side on both occasions with Hibs.

His last game in Scotland was that 2013 cup final — a disappointing 3-0 defeat by Celtic.

“The second year, it was so noisy. I remember coming out and getting a fright. A firework went off and it felt like it was in my pocket right beside me. The electricity in the place was unreal. Just a sea of green — the Hibs and Celtic fans in the stadium, it was amazing.

“I’ll never forget that match. Early in the first half, I missed a header. Fraser Forster saved it. Celtic scored straight away up the other end. We would have been 1-0 up. That’s one of the only moments in my career that I look back in my career and not that I regret what I did, but in the moment, you go: ‘Fuck I wish I had slotted that in.’”

Ultimately though, Doyle had done enough to stay in Britain and enjoyed a reunion with former Sligo boss Paul Cook at Chesterfield in 2013.

“The difference [with Ireland] I found when I came back was just the athleticism. There’s not that much pace in the league here compared to when I came back from League One. There are a lot of really fast skilful players over there, powerful men, whereas that’s not really the case here.

“That was the biggest difference — I found training in England mid-season would have been harder than pre-season in Ireland. Not for the fact that the sessions were different — they weren’t, the coaches here are excellent. It was just the athleticism. For me to keep up with the lads in League One was really hard.”

Doyle played in the Championship with Preston and Cardiff. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

After 32 league goals in 69 appearances in two seasons for Chesterfield including promotion to League One, Doyle made another step up, signing for Championship side Preston. 

“When I went to Cardiff, again, just the athleticism, everyone seemed so much bigger immediately on the pitch and so much faster. And that was the real difference.

“Regarding the style of football, it wasn’t much different if I’m being honest. League One, there was probably more football being played than in the Championship. It could be a bit more direct at times because you had the likes of Kenwyne Jones up front and you should hit them early because he’s really good in the air. 

“So you played to your personnel. And that personnel was there in the Championship. So I found it a bit more direct at times compared to what I was playing in League One, but again, it was just trying to commit my body to beef up and getting bigger and stronger to keep up with the pace.”

In this environment, Doyle struggled to score with the same regularity as he had managed elsewhere.

The Irish striker finished his first season with five goals in 17 appearances. He was sent on loan to Championship rivals Preston the following campaign, but again, never quite hit the heights of his Chesterfield stint.

His progress at the Lilywhites was not helped by what he remembers as one of the worst moments of his career, where both himself and teammate Jermaine Beckford were sent off for fighting with one another.

“I remember my dad couldn’t sleep that night. He got up at 3am and I was on the sports section of CNN,” he laughs.

“The old Man United goalie Anders Lindegaard was our goalie, he was showing me the news in Denmark, and it’s me and Beckford.”

Asked why it never quite happened for him at Championship level, Doyle says: “You probably needed to give a bit more than just goals.

“My hold-up play was never great. But in the Championship if my hold-up play wasn’t great and I gave the ball away, you potentially could concede because you get punished for mistakes easily.

“And I think me being a fox in the box probably wasn’t enough for the Championship.

“Don’t get me wrong. I played left wing for Preston and played loads of times in different positions not fully upfront.

“But I think if someone was to commit to me in the Championship at the time, just let him be, put the ball into the box and he’ll get you goals, I think I would have been able to get a good few.”

Similarly, the dream of playing for Ireland eluded Doyle with plenty of competition in the squad for the attacking spots.

“To get to the heights of being an international or anything like that, I probably just didn’t have enough at that stage.

“And at the time when I was playing up front and scoring goals, you have to remember, Kevin Doyle, Robbie Keane, Shane Long and Noel Hunt were still playing, I wasn’t at that level. Whereas if it was now, or maybe the last three or four years, and I was doing what I was doing at that time, I may have got a call-up.”

Doyle generally got on much better in Leagues One and Two. Of those eight seasons in either division, he scored at least 10 goals in six and twice broke the 20-goal barrier. Moreover, the two exceptions were only half-seasons at Bolton and Portsmouth.

Even in what he describes as the worst time in his career, as part of a Bradford side that had three different managers during a single season and ended up finishing bottom of League One, he still managed a respectable tally of 10 goals amid this turbulent campaign.

“When the League One clubs then came back in for me and seeing what I had previously done, they knew the type of striker I was,” he says.

“I’d worked my arse off and all that, but basically if you put balls back in the box, I was very handy at putting balls in the back of the net. So any club I signed for after that seemed to play a system that suited me.

“And then obviously, when the goals were going in, they knew if you can get this striker in, and play this type of way, we have a good chance of going up or whatever because this fella can score goals.

“The last few years over there, I was that go-to fella, especially from League Two up to League One to get you a handful of goals.”

Indeed, towards the latter end of his career, prolific seasons for Swindon and Bolton inspired successful League Two promotion bids two seasons on the bounce.

As productive as this spell was on the pitch, it was taking its toll away from it, with the constant moving from place to place and the long journeys to training becoming a routine.

“I think Danny my eldest lived in five houses before he was two,” he recalls. “That was when I was really on the move all the time.

“It was just a mad period in my career where every window opened up and people were ringing: ‘Will you come here?’

“When I signed for Preston, we moved to Liverpool and we settled there, so any club I signed for, I travelled from the base in Liverpool so my kids were born there. They came home with full-on Scouse accents but they are starting to shake them now.”

The prospect of long-term stability was part of what motivated Doyle’s desire to return to Ireland and take those crucial tentative steps towards the second phase of his life.

As he sips on an Americano throughout our interview, Doyle comes across as a contented figure. Having once dreaded the thought of retirement, he now seems at ease with his new status as an ex-footballer.

“I don’t miss it but I haven’t been back to a match yet,” he says. “I’ve watched them on the telly. I’ve a feeling if I go into the stadium I might feel a little [itch to play].

“So I’ve deliberately stayed away. I fully plan next year to be out at all the games every Friday as much as possible. But for now, I’m staying away.

“I’ll go to the cup final, bring the kids and that.”