PATRICK JOSEPH [FELIX] HEALY

This week our regular series looking at the greatest players to represent the Bannsiders focuses on the club’s talisman during the 1980’s – the mercurial Felix Healy.

Signed by Victor Hunter from Port Vale in 1980, Healy went on to become the lynchpin of the Coleraine team of the mid-80’s which finished league championship runners-up several times in succession and reached two Irish Cup finals. Unfortunately Coleraine finished up on the losing side on both occasions, in 1982 where they lost 2-1 to League Champions Linfield and in 1986 when they agonisingly lost out to Glentoran through Paul Millar’s last gasp winner. Healy was on the score sheet for the Bannsiders in both games, and demonstrated exactly why he's still considered to have one of the best passing games ever to have graced the Irish League.

With Coleraine being successful in the league in this period, they were frequent participants in European competitions. Healy played 8 European matches for Coleraine, including the famous Cup Winners Cup ties against Spurs in 1982. He scored two goals in Europe for the club; in both cases his strikes earned 1-1 home draws against Sparta Rotterdam and Brandenburg in 1983 and 1986 respectively.

He was also picked several times for the Northern Ireland squad during his time at The Showgrounds, earning four caps in all and famously being selected in the squad for the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Courtesy of his substitute appearance in Northern Ireland’s 1-1 draw with Honduras in Zaragoza, he became the first (and so far only) Irish League player to play in a World Cup Finals match. He also picked up three representative caps for the Irish League, against OFK Belgrade in 1982 and then against the League of Ireland in 1984 and 1986.

After leaving Coleraine, he joined his hometown club Derry City where he enjoyed notable success before being brought back to The Showgrounds in 1991 by Iam McFaul and after serving as Caretaker manager for a few games after McFaul resigned; he would eventually become Manager on a permanent basis in 1993 replacing Billy Sinclair. He built the basis of a good side, but during the 1994/95 season, he left to take up the manager’s job at the Brandywell, where he would go on win the League of Ireland title.

He later managed Finn Harps, where he worked alongside fellow ex-Bannsider Tony Gorman. The two men made guest appearances in the Coleraine midfield when they brought their team to The Showgrounds for Pat McAllister’s testimonial in February 2005.

In 2003 Radio Ulster Sportsound Poll saw him named in an All-Time Irish League select XI, one of three Coleraine players (the others being Johnny McCurdy and Des Dickson) to make the side.

Coleraine Record: 290 Appearances – 108 goals