Doolin deserving of ‘boss of bosses’ title

SO CONGRATULATIONS to Paul Doolin on being named Philips Sports Manager of 2007.

At the end of a year in which Drogheda United successfully defended their Setanta Cup crown and went on to lift the club’s first ever League title, the gong for their boss was well deserved. It seems strange to recall now but, back at the start of the season, it was hard to find anyone who could see beyond Derry City as favourites to win the eircom league. And when the transformation from Stephen Kenny to Pat Fenlon and beyond proved less than seamless on Foyleside, attention quickly turned to St Pats who bounded out of the blocks like there would be no stopping them.

Canny, consistent Drogheda, however, turned to be the ones with ultimate staying power, even surmounting the kind of injury setbacks which would have derailed a lesser side, or one not lucky enough to be managed by a man with such a shrewd eye for running repairs. Indeed, it was one of Doolin’s summer signings, the Geordie journeyman Guy Bates, who provided the decisive strike in the 2-1 victory over Cork City in October which finally gave Drogheda their longed-for title.

It is customary at awards ceremonies for the winners to express gob-smacked surprise at getting the nod. And Doolin was no exception the other night. But you suspect that here was a man who was genuinely taken aback, and not least because the League of Ireland has often tended to be overlooked in these affairs — it was, after all, a full 21 years since a domestic soccer figure was last crowned boss of bosses, when the great Jim McLaughlin was the recipient in 1986.

But with Doolin too, you often get the sense that he feels his Drogheda team don’t necessarily get the attention they deserve, or that if they did do it is somehow grudgingly given, with not sufficient credit accorded the quality of their best football. In fact, the perceived media focus on Dublin and Cork and Derry might actually have worked to Drogheda’s advantage, fostering a mild but productive siege mentality, if that’s not an historically insensitive thing to say about Boynesiders.

If there was a hint of controversy about Doolin’s gong, it was that it meant no ultimate recognition for Adi Birrell, whose cricket team provided one of the year’s most sensational stories of Irish sporting endeavour. Now, admittedly, your present correspondent simply doesn’t get cricket — which doubtless says more about me than it does about the sport — but I don’t believe that the websites and phone-in shows are collapsing under the weight of protest either. Maybe it will be a long time before Irish cricket again makes its mark at a World Cup but, short of qualification for the group stages of the Champions’ League, it could be even longer before another League of Ireland gaffer is enjoying this kind of deserved moment in the spotlight. So, no complaints about Paul Doolin’s win here.

But you will find a little ‘bah humbug’ about the Texaco Award for Richard Dunne. No offence to the big man. I well recall Dunne at the 2002 World Cup in Japan, literally sweating it out at every Irish training session but always destined to be a non-playing member of the squad. Vulnerable to distractions outside the sport, he has since turned his life and his career around. Today, Dunne is one of the best centre-halves in the Premiership, the occasional rash tackle notwithstanding.

But the best Irish footballer of the year? Two words say no: “David” and “Healy”.

To be fair, Healy was the winner of the Texaco award for soccer in 2006, having bagged a hat-trick against Spain in Northern Ireland’s sensational 3-2 win, so it’s not as if the judges have missed the boat. More accurate to say, that they jumped the gun.

In 2007, Healy was sensational in the other green shirt. In March, he became the first player ever to score two hat-tricks for Northern Ireland by bagging three against Liechtenstein. That same month he added another brace against Sweden, followed by two more against Liechtenstein in August and then a penalty away to Iceland in September. And on November 17, his simply exquisite chip helped the North to a 2-1 win over Denmark at Windsor Park, in the process giving Healy a record-breaking European Championship qualifying total of 13 goals — one more than the great Davor Suker managed for Croatia in the Euro ‘96 campaign.

No two ways about it.

Healy was not only the Irish footballer of the year but, second only to Padraig Harrington, the all Ireland all star of 2007.