Mark Coyle: I’ll always appreciate opportunity Finn Harps gave me

Mark Coyle says he’ll always owe Finn Harps, and especially Ollie Horgan, a debt of gratitude.

The Shelbourne captain, and League of Ireland Premier Division Player of the Month for February, is now into his third season at Tolka Park.

In late 2021, the Burt native had just enjoyed his best ever season on Navenny Street in what he also called the best Harps side he’d played in.

That Covid-interrupted term, Horgan had reached deeper than ever into his bag of tricks and somehow managed to pull out gem after gem.

Harps eventually finished eighth to secure a fourth straight season in the Premier Division. But Coyle knew straight away that most if not all of the side’s best performers would still be leaving.

In the end Coyle, Harps Player of the Year that same term, also jumped ship. At the time, he was a medical scientist at Letterkenny University Hospital and juggled his commitments at Finn Harps on a part-time basis.

The offer from Shelbourne was a full-time gig so there was plenty to weigh up. But, in the end, Coyle went with his gut feeling because he didn’t want to look back on the opportunity with any kind of regret.

Shels currently sit top of the Premier Division right now and Coyle wears the club’s armband. As well as that, he calls childhood hero Damien Duff boss.

“I’m in a good place and things are going well,” he told DonegalLive. “But I have to say my first season was difficult. I got off to a good start but got injured and then missed most of the season.

“I know we got to the cup final but I didn’t start because of that injury - a partial tear of my patellar tendon in my knee. But last year, I just got a good run at it, I’d a good season.

“I was fit, I played well and we qualified for Europe. And this year we’ve carried on that. But it’s very early days. And I have to say is there is a lot of hard work that goes into all of that as well.

“The team, the backroom staff, everyone at the club really, it’s been a massive push. At the time, I took the risk and came down.

“But I didn’t really have much to lose. I had a full-time job, I had my degree as well so I was very fortunate in that way”.

Coyle, now 27, still remembers the rush and the rigmarole, the effort made just to make training and the time taken off work to get to games. It’s so far removed from his current pre and post-match regime.

But, in a strange kinda way, what he has now makes him appreciate the “good old days” at Harps much, much more.

“Definitely, because the difference in full-time is massive. It’s the time and space for rest and recovery. After a pitch session, you go straight to the gym, sauna and then pool. That’s the routine most days.

“Part-time, you’d be rushing in and just about making it on time because of work. You’d be looking for time off at weekends. The management only really had you for an hour and a half.

“And, to be fair, there was always that acknowledgement that lads had just come in from work, so they had to be careful how hard they pushed you.

“But here, because it’s full-time, when we come in we are really pushed. That’s one thing about the manager, his mentality is elite.

“It actually blew my mind when I first came down. The way we train and the intensity of it, you can really see the development of all of that as time goes on”.

Ahead of the 2022 season Horgan lost, in total, 11 players from that previous rollercoaster campaign as the likes of Sean Boyd, Daniel Hawkins, Shane McEleney, Tunde Owolabi, Adam Foley, Karl O’Sullivan, Jordan Mustoe, Will Seymore, Kosovar Sadiki and, eventually Coyle, all punched their tickets for pastures new.

Harps might have finished just above the relegation play-off berth but they also ended up just ten points shy of third-placed Sligo Rovers.

“It’s easy to say now but I really do feel if we’d been full-time back then we’d have been even further up the league.

“Because the other thing about being part-time was you always felt, in your head, the other side were at an advantage or had more work done under their belts

“Now, at that time, at home, we always looked forward to it because we just felt that at Finn Park we were a match for anyone.

“At the end of each year at Harps, there was always that exodus and lads leaving. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but we just didn’t have that continuity. You were only getting to know lads, forming that bond, and then they were gone.

“Like, I really see the benefits of that down here. There is a camaraderie simply because we spend so much time together. And that really is huge when it comes to digging in for each other on the pitch”.

A superb 5-0 end-of-season win over Longford easily secured Harps’ safety in a game that proved to not only be Coyle’s last for the club but so many others as well.

The Harps players and staff enjoyed a brilliant night out in Ballybofey but most knew, even if it wasn’t mentioned, that it was also a goodbye party for quite a few. But Coyle says he still keeps in touch with so many of those same lads.

“With social media, I always keep an eye out for all those boys. I still speak to Will Seymore and Karl O’Sullivan, he’s going really well at Galway. Dave Webster, I’m still really close to him.

“So, yeah, it was just a pity we couldn’t have kept that group together. The great thing about that time at Harps was that Ollie didn’t just recruit great players, he recruited great lads.

“Adam Foley was another great player but a really good lad around the dressing room also. Genuinely, if you asked me about any of that group, from that time, I could tell you exactly where they are because it was such a good time”.

And what about Ollie Horgan?

“I’ve great time for Ollie and because of what I’m experiencing at Shels, I’ve even more appreciation and respect for the job Ollie did at Harps.

“It was amazing really. So much of what you might take for granted… that man worked so hard, put in serious hours and miles, that no one will ever hear about. And he knew every single player he signed.

“The job he did, on the budget he had, it was amazing really. I’ve huge time for Ollie. But that season, the success of it probably was our downfall at the same time because lads put themselves in the shop window.

“I will always be grateful to Ollie because he gave me the opportunity to play. Even when I went to play Gaelic football he brought me back in. I wouldn’t be here now, at Shels, if it wasn’t for Ollie Horgan and the belief he had in me”.