Paul Marney interviewed by Keith Wallace
August 30th 2007.His arrival at Oriel Park was greeted with pleasant surprise last month, after it appeared for so long that he was on route to Dundalk’s near neighbours and bitter rivals, Drogheda United. There is probably no better way to endear yourself to fans than to turn down your new club’s arch enemies, and having resisted Paul Doolin’s lure of Premier Division football to instead join the mighty Lilywhites, the door suddenly appeared open for a new legend to enter the Dundalk Hall of Fame. And, when the man in question, one Robbie Doyle, added to that reputation by netting on his debut at home to Kildare County just 24 hours after signing his contract (complete with the celebratory dance in front of ‘The Shed’), it appeared that that possibility could well become reality.
Since making his bow six weeks ago, the former UCD striker has impressed some, if not all, Dundalk fans, having hit two goals in his subsequent six starts following that debut strike. Whether the door is still open for legendary status is in the hands of the player himself, but where exactly did Doyler come from and where has he gone during a football career that has brought him far and wide? Well, the 25-year-old arrived at Dundalk from English League Two side, Macclesfield Town. The Lilywhites are the fifth Irish club that Doyle has lined out for during his senior career, though it was in England that he learned his trade, when he signed for Premiership club, Blackburn Rovers in 1998. But how did that move across the water come about?
Robbie explains…“I was playing local football with a team called Ardmore where I’m from down in Bray, and I got called into the Irish under-16s. I went away with Brian Kerr and the team to the Nordic Cup; I was the only player that wasn’t involved with an English club. We done well, and I got a bit of limelight from clubs in England. I went to a couple of clubs, Newcastle and Everton. When I got back home, I got a call from my agent saying that Blackburn were interested in me and would I be interested in going over. I went over and I loved it, and signed a five-year deal with them. It was great. I only stayed for three years, there was limited chances. With the money they had, they were buying in a lot of players, and you were going further and further down the pecking order all the time, so rather than sitting around just wasting time over there, I came home. I was due to go to Huddersfield but I went away with the Irish team and I got injured, so I didn’t go. I decided to come home and try to go back a different route, because I always said I wanted to play at the highest level. I thought if I came back over here, where the league was growing, and put in a few good seasons, that the chance may come to get back across to England.”
Following a three-year spell at Ewood Park, Robbie returned home in the middle of the 00/01 season and signed for his home town club, Bray Wanderers. However, his stay at the Carlisle Grounds was a short one. “I played a couple of games,” Robbie recalls, “but the way it was down there, they were fighting for survival, so they were playing more experienced players and I wasn’t really getting a look in. I got a call from Paul Doolin then to say would I go to UCD at the end of the season, and it was probably the best move I ever made. Bray had wanted to sign me back but I went to UCD, which was a great move when I look back. It was great as a club, there was no hype or anything around them, they were a hard working team, just as they are now. I went in and Doolin offered me first-team football. I went in in my first season and I scored seven goals, which was great. I hadn’t been playing the previous season at Bray, and as a young lad, you only want to be playing week in, week out – that was the thing that mattered to me. I had a great season there.”
Those seven goals in 24 league appearances for the Students brought the attention of Stephen Kenny, the then Bohemians manager, to the striker, and in 2003, Doyle signed for the Gypsies. “I got a call from Stephen Kenny saying he wanted to sign me,” the Bray native explains. “Coming up to the end of the season with UCD, I agreed terms with Bohs and signed a three-year deal with them then; they were coming off the back of winning the league. I wanted to get back into full-time football as soon as possible, I always said that. At UCD, it was part-time football, and when a big club like Bohs come knocking, I couldn’t turn them down. It was great. They had just won the league, and they had the big two, Crowe and Keegan, up front. People were saying that I wasn’t going to get in, but I went in on my debut and scored against Spurs, and it kicked on from there. It took me three months to get into the starting eleven, but when I got my chance, I took it. I think we went on a break during the season, and after that, Stephen said ‘I’m going to put you in’, and I didn’t look back from there. We were in the Champions League that year. We beat BATE Borisov (Belarus) and then went on to play Rosenborg (Norway) in the second round. We got beaten 5-0 on aggregate but the whole experience of playing in the Champions League was brilliant; we went out there and there was something like 20,000 people at the game. That’s brilliant for any young player to play in. They were big games, and we also came second in the league that year, so it was a good season.”
After that opening season at Bohs, things took a backward step for Doyle at Dalymount Park, and in mid-2004, he decided to move across the capital and join Saint Patrick’s Athletic. And, the player admits: “Pats was great. I just wanted to get playing, because coming into the second season at Bohs, I hadn’t been in the team. When I went to Pats, there was something like 12 games left in the season. I ended up scoring five, which was great, and then stayed there for the following season as well. It was really good and I enjoyed every minute of it. Johnny McDonnell was very good to work under, he reminds me of Giller a lot; he was very motivated about his football and very involved. He loves the game inside out, he used to play the game, so he knows a lot about it. He knows where players are coming from, and he just gives his best to the club. I had a great relationship with him, and I respect him as a manager. I spent a season and a half at Pats, I was expecting to sign a new deal there, but the way they let it go on, I wasn’t too happy the way they handled that. It was coming up to the end of the season and there was talk about me going here and going there. The club had said they wanted to give me a new contract, but for me, they let it go on too late.
“So, I said I was going to move on, I said I wanted to go a different avenue to try to get back to England, and I went back to Bray for a year. A lot happened within that year at Pats, personally. A lot of my family were in Bray, and it was good that Bray came looking for me, they wanted to play me and they offered me a good contract. It meant me going back to work with Pat Devlin again as well, who I have known for a long time. It was close to home, especially after the time that it was, it was good to be around familiar faces and to just get on with things. We hadn’t a great year, but you’re always going to be struggling when you’re a part-time club. The full-time teams train more and they have better resources. I know Bray, financially, aren’t one of the biggest clubs, but for what they had, they ran it well. They administrated it well and they seem to have their house in order, with a good manager in Eddie Gormley. I went there, it was my home town club, down the road from me, so I was delighted to sign for them.”
Despite enjoying that spell, however, Doyle again left the Seagulls after just one season, after getting an offer from Macclesfield manager, Paul Ince. So, how did that transfer come about and what was the whole English league experience like? “I got a call from my agent saying that Paul Ince was on to him looking for a striker, and that he had heard about me and he wanted me over to have a look at me. I went over and it went well, he liked what he saw and he asked me to stay until the end of the season. I really couldn’t turn him down; he was a hero of mine since I was young and started playing football. To work under him was great, and I think it benefited me – the things I learned over there with him were brilliant. To be back in England was good, because, as a player, you want to play at the highest stage that you can. I always expressed my desire to play back in England, and it was a chance for me to get back over there and I learned a lot from it. They play with such high intensity, you don’t even get a second on the ball, so you’re getting battered. The average height of defenders in England must be 7ft! It was the same as it is in the top flight here, it’s a very fast paced game. I think the higher you go up, the players respect you more and you seem to get more time on the ball. But it was good for me to be back over there again, especially the training that we did over there – it stands to me now as a player, and hopefully it will do for years to come. I think I got in for the last couple of games; I didn’t get registered for a while and then I was injured for a bit. I only played two games, but it was a great experience. It would have been great to get on more, but they were fighting for relegation at the time, so you have to respect the manager; he’s going to play his more experienced eleven. You’ve just got to get on with it.”
So, after finally completing his desired move to England, why did Robbie return home last month? “It was through my own choice,” Doyle states. “I had the option to go to a few clubs over there, to stay over and do pre-season with them, but as a player, you want to know what you’re doing and you want to know whether you’re coming or going. I came back over here and was talking to a few clubs, the likes of Drogheda and Bray. I talked to a good few clubs, and I was in between making my decision when I got the call from Giller. As soon as I met him, I knew where I wanted to go. He sold the club brilliantly to me, I had a good think about it and I couldn’t really turn him down. I met Doolo (Paul Doolin) and had a couple of phone calls with him (about signing for Drogheda). I met Paul and that was it, I was thinking about it but I said I wasn’t going to rush into anything. We chatted and we said we’d think about things, but then in the meantime, I met Giller, and I was happy enough to just get back in playing and back scoring goals. I think I’ve come to a great club here, the fans are great, the players are brilliant – I get on well with everyone. There’s a great backroom staff here, and the club is going in the right way. In my eyes, this is a Premier Division club, and it’s up to us now to push them on through and make sure we get there for next year. It’s going great here at the moment, I’ve been welcomed in by everyone, and where the club wants to go, I want to be a part of that.”
