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Mark Coyle and Damien Duff. Tom Maher/INPHO

Shelbourne's Mark Coyle: 'The table doesn’t lie, we deserve it'

League winning captain Mark Coyle joined the latest episode of The Football Family pod to reflect on this season’s success and a life-changing few years under Damien Duff.

SHELBOURNE CAPTAIN MARK Coyle caught up with Gavin Cooney and David Sneyd on this week’s episode of The Football Family, the podcast for subscribers to The 42.

Coyle was asked about the ‘sticky patch’ that Shelbourne had emerged from before  they won their last three games of the season to clinch the league title.

“Can you talk to us a little bit about how Damien Duff and his staff helped to reset things during that break after the Pat’s and Rovers defeats? What were you saying amongst yourselves? How did you reframe things to go in and sprint home to the title?” Cooney asked.

“I think it was a ’now or never’ sort of thing. It was do or die. We all realised that,” Coyle said.

“Then Derry didn’t win against Bohs and that kept us on top. They sort of slipped up and we realised now is the time that we need to do something about this.

“I think that’s a testament to the group and the coaching staff. We really stood up when it mattered. As you said, the table doesn’t lie. We’re top of the table at the end of the year, and we deserve it.”

The subject of Shelbourne adopting a siege mentality was also discussed.

“Did you feel that? Because the manager said things like ‘people in the league don’t want us to win the league’, but personally I do feel as if there was a lot of goodwill towards Shelbourne this year,” said Sneyd.

“Did you feel differently or is that just something you have to buy into and make yourself believe?”

“He’s well aware too that there were plenty of people that wanted Shels to win it as well. But I would say the loudest noise was people who didn’t want [us to win it],” Coyle said.

“For me, yeah, we did buy into that siege mentality a bit. But you have to cling onto whatever you can to help drive you to make sure it happens and to get over the line. 

“I’m just thankful now that we did and I’m very proud of the players and staff that we did stand up when it was needed, and we got it over the line.”

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