Your football career got off to a great start with an FAI Cup win back in 1975 for Home Farm…
Being so young a lot of that experience passed me by. I was only 16 so I didn’t take it all in. I can remember bits and pieces about the Cup Final itself. It was a great day and a great experience but it seemed to be over very quickly!
Two years later you moved to Everton. Was that an enjoyable experience?
At the time I thought I was a bit more mature than I was. I was a bit unlucky. It took me some time to settle down at Everton. And when I did manage to settle down I suffered a cruciate ligament injury. However, it was a great experience to be involved at a big club like Everton.
It was around about this time that you were diagnosed with a heart condition. There seemed to be quite a few times during your career when it looked like you would have to give up the game…
Yes but I always think that luck tends to even itself out. I was lucky enough to link up with Professor Horgan in Beaumount Hospital. He would then have to give me the all-clear to keep playing every year. In the end I did very well and even after leaving Dundalk in 1990 I continued to play on for quite a few years.
After returning home from Everton you played very well for Home Farm and Drogheda United. Was a move back to England looked to be on the cards?
Drogheda finished runners-up in the league in 1983 and I went off to Nottingham Forest for a month. I played a few games and worked under Brian Clough. It then transpired that Everton were going to seek a transfer fee from Nottingham Forest if I signed for them so I think that ended the chances of that deal coming through. My wife was expecting a child at the time also.
You were signed for Dundalk by Tommy Connolly. How did your transfer come about?
I was at Drogheda United and they parted company with Ray Treacy. I had a falling out with the new manager and then Tommy came in for me.
What were your first impressions of Dundalk?
It was a difficult first season. It was a transition year for Dundalk but the expectations are always very high.
What was your feelings with Turlough O’Connor became manager in 1985?
I didn’t know Turlough before he joined Dundalk. Actually, the only dealing I had with him was when I played against him when he was at Bohemians. There was a row and I ended up grabbing him. Both of us ended up in the back of the net! He actually told me a few years after he joined that he had planned to get rid of me when he came to the club. I’m certainly glad that he didn’t!
By the 1987/88 season Turlough had assembled a very experienced squad. What was the mood in the dressing room like?
It was a very good dressing room. We did have a serious intent and we knew that we had a job to do. There was good banter and no egos. Nobody believed that they were better than anybody else. I know from being a manager that the attitude in the dressing room is very important and how you react to the expectation is key. I remember when I managed Crusaders that the atmosphere was much different because nobody really expected us to win.
You were the type of player that was relied upon to carve open the defence for the likes of Terry Eviston and Dessie Gorman. Did you enjoy your role?
The game is very different now than it was then. I don’t believe we were a long ball team or anything as we had a lot of really good players and a fair bit of flair. But the second ball that came out of the opponents defence was key and I enjoyed getting forward and making things happen.
What are your personal highlights from the Double Winning season?
I scored a few goals that year. I remember a header down in Cork in the FAI Cup and a very late goal on a terrible pitch against Shelbourne when everything just opened up for me. We also enjoyed a great win over Shamrock Rovers which was a big thing for us because they had gave us a few beatings the previous season.
Did you enjoy your playing career at Oriel Park?
I had a great time at Dundalk. I was in Dundalk a lot due to work and was practically up in Dundalk everyday with my work. So I got to know a lot of people in the town and I enjoyed a very good rapport with a lot of the supporters and people in the town.
You returned to Oriel Park as a manager in 2000. How did you get the job?
I remember driving up to Belfast for a meeting with Crusaders and hearing on LMFM that Terry had left the club. I applied for the job and thankfully I was able to get the position.
You won promotion in your first season. You also experienced the lows of relegation and the high of the 2002 FAI Cup success. Having been out of the club for six years now how do you look back at your managerial spell at the club?
I was lucky and unlucky in many respects. The positives of my time there was that I had a good relationship with the Chairman and we managed to get in some good players. In the first year we got despite all the hassle of the Foot & Mouth outbreak that stopped us from playing at Oriel Park. After we got up a lot of things went against us. We could have done with signing Garry Haylock earlier as we were drawing a lot of games we should have won. Haylock could have made the difference. But we came into great form from January onwards. A crucial game that went against us was a match against St Pats at Oriel Park. We had just beaten Rovers 4-0 and I think we would have beaten Pats that night. But the conditions were terrible that night and Pat Dolan managed to convince the referee to call the game off. We ended up losing the re-arranged match 1-0.
It was very tight in the end…
Yes…and it was typical of the league. They changed the format again and made it three teams to be relegated. We finished 19 points ahead of Galway United who finished one place below us and just lost out by one point to Longford Town.
Did you enjoy the FAI Cup win?
It was a great day and a great night afterwards. I remember we were late getting to the game and the Chairman trying to calm me down. Bohs were expected to beat us and we played very well. It was fantastic to win the FAI Cup after all that happened.
Would you like to return to management?
It’s all different these days. I enjoyed my career. You mentioned the heart thing and how I managed to keep playing for many years. I am not interested in UEFA licensing badges and everything else that is involved now. I
