FAY COYLE
Continuing our series looking at the careers of Coleraine’s greatest ever players, our attentions turn to one of the club’s most prolific strikers, Fay Coyle.
Fay Coyle first came to Coleraine’s attentions on 17th October 1953, when playing for Derry City; he scored a hat trick in a 3-3 draw against the Bannsiders before leaving for London after the match to take up employment there.
He obviously made a significant impression as just over a month later upon his return from London, Coleraine secured his signature as part of the deal which took Bobby Brolly to the Brandywell. He made an instant impact for Coleraine, scoring on his debut against Crusaders on 5th December and went on to score 12 goals during the rest of his debut season.
His record in the
next two campaigns was outstanding. In the 1954/5 season he scored an
incredible 38 goals in 39 appearances and followed that up th
e
next year with 34 in 38. With such feats of goalscoring, it isn’t
surprising that he earned international recognition, playing in a victory
over Scotland and a defeat to England in 1955 and a 1-1 draw with Portugal
in 1957. In 1958, he helped Coleraine to win the Gold Cup, sadly the only
trophy he would win at The Showgrounds.
He also attracted interest from cross-channel teams and signed for Nottingham Forest in February 1958 and represented Northern Ireland at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden as a Forest player. He was part of a squad which had strong Coleraine connections in the form of Manchester United goalkeeper Harry Gregg and Glasgow Celtic’s Bertie Peacock. Following the World Cup, he returned to Coleraine in July 1958, where he continued to be a prolific goal scorer for several seasons.
In addition to the full international caps he won, he also played in seven Irish League representative games, scoring twice in a 5-2 defeat against the English League at Blackpool in 1960 and once in a 6-2 victory over the Italian Semi-Pro league side at Windsor in 1962.
Following his final game for Coleraine against Portadown in 1963, he returned to his hometown club, Derry City and helped them win the Irish Cup in 1964 and then their only Irish League title in 1965.
Sadly Fay died last year.
Coleraine Record: 348 appearances – 241 goals