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Fullname: Thomas Coyne
aka: Tommy Coyne, T.C., ‘Der Bomber’
Born: 14 November 1962
Birthplace: Govan, Glasgow
Signed: 24 March 1989
Left: 12 March 1993
Position: Striker
Debut: Hearts away 1-0 League 11 March 1989
Last appearance: Dundee away 1-0 League 23 February 1993
First goal: Hearts away 3-1 League 12 August 1989
Last goal: Saint Johnstone home 5-1 League 3 February 1993
Internationals: Republic of Ireland
International Caps: 22
International Goals: 6
Biog
| “Me coming on and them [the Celtic supporters] cheering me made me feel good.” Tommy Coyne |
He came to the attention of the Celtic fans in October 1988 when he scored the winner in a 3-2 victory for Dundee over Celtic at Celtic Park, with all five goals coming in the first half.
Celtic signed him in March 1989 as a potential replacement for the West Ham bound Frank McAvennie and for this reason it took a lot of Celtic fans time to come round to him as Frank McAvennie was enormously popular with the Celtic faithful.
His debut was in a 1-0 win at Tynecastle when Billy McNeill played him in a curious wide left midfield position. Despite playing in a few games he didn’t manage to score before the end of the season and was cup tied when Celtic won the Scottish Cup against Rangers in May 1989.
He exploded on to the scene with a clinical hat trick in a 3-1 win on the opening day of the 1989/90 season at Tynecastle however that season was a poor one for both Celtic and Tommy Coyne as Billy McNeill’s team turned in some of the worst performances seen at Parkhead for over a decade. This was best summed up on 4th November 1989 at Ibrox when Tommy Coyne missed an open goal at 0-0, a matter of minutes before Mo Johnston scored the winning goal at the other end. That result turned Celtic’s season for the worse and the team never quite recovered although Tommy Coyne had the satisfaction of scoring the winner at Parkhead against Rangers in a 1-0 win in the Scottish Cup on February 25th 1990.
Tommy Coyne was transferred listed and placed in the reserves in the early months of the following season but he returned to the first team because of an injury crisis in November 1990 and scored Celtic’s goals in an impressive 2-1 win over Motherwell. He did not look back and was Celtic’s top scorer by the end of the season and these goals were responsible for Celtic getting a UEFA cup place that year. He showed great courage in winning back his place and he became a big favourite with the fans in view of this and was humorously nicknamed ‘Der Bomber‘ around this period.
In 1991/92 Tommy Coyne fought it out with Gerry Creaney and Charlie Nicholas for a place in the Celtic attack and all three scored regularly that season but by August 1992 Celtic manager Liam Brady had brought Andy Payton and Stuart Slater to Celtic and after injury Tommy Coyne lost his place. He was recalled in January 1993 and scored the winning goal against Clyde in the Scottish Cup and also the winner against Airdrie at Broomfield when the game should never have been played in atrocious wild and wet conditions.
It was clear now that Liam Brady did not rate Tommy Coyne and some of the support would raise this point to show the poor judgement of Liam Brady as a manager.
Post-Celtic
Tommy Coyne left Celtic to Tranmere Rovers in 1993. It was a pity that Tommy Coyne came to Celtic during a tempestuous period in the club’s history and that he did not play with a Celtic side that created more chances but also who should have been more successful in terms of trophies. It also reflected Liam Brady’s lack of genuine nous on talent and squad building.
He returned to Scotland after a short period to join Motherwell after the tragic death of his wife. He had an enormously successful spell at Fir Park under Tommy McLean and in January 1994 it was his goal that knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup and ultimately brought down the failing Celtic board of directors weeks later. In March 1998 he scored against Rangers in a vital 2-1 win which greatly assisted Celtic in claiming that year’s title and stopping Rangers’ 10 in a row bid. Tommy Coyne and Owen Coyle (both well known Celtic men) were said to have run themselves into the ground during that game.
He earned a creditable 22 caps for the Republic of Ireland (another loss for Scotland’s national side), including a memorable lone striker’s shift in the memorable 1-0 defeat of Italy in Giants Stadium in the World Cup in USA 1994 playing for Jack Charlton’s heroes. Highly lauded by his international manager who said:
“He’s one of the most skillful players around… if he had another yard of pace he’d be worth multi-millions“.
Like many forwards supposedly dogged by lack of pace, Tommy Coyne enjoyed a lengthy career and was using his guile to great effect in the Premier League well into his mid 30s and Tommy Coyne is fondly remembered by Celtic, Dundee and Motherwell fans alike.
Quotes
“I was never ever going to sign for Rangers because they did not allow it at the time. The school I went to [St Saviour’s] wasn’t far away – just at the back of Ibrox. I’d been asked a few times but when it became clear what school I went to it was dismissed. There were [Rangers] people looking. As soon as they found out I went to a Roman Catholic school they’d say: ‘it is out of my hands’.”
Tommy Coyne
Playing Career
| Club | From | To | Fee | League | Scottish/FA Cup | League cup | Europe | ||||
| Albion | 16/02/2001 | 28/02/2001 | Signed | 1 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Clydebank | 04/08/2000 | 02/02/2001 | Signed | 10 (5) | 4 | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 (0) | 0 | 2 (1) | 1 |
| Falkirk | 13/08/1999 | 13/10/1999 | Loan | 6 (2) | 1 | 0 (0) | 0 | 2 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Dundee | 01/07/1998 | 04/08/2000 | Free | 7 (10) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 1 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Motherwell | 30/11/1993 | 01/07/1998 | Signed | 124 (10) | 57 | 5 (0) | 1 | 5 (0) | 0 | 1 (0) | 0 |
| Tranmere | 12/03/1993 | 30/11/1993 | £ | No appearance data available | |||||||
| Celtic | 24/03/1989 | 12/03/1993 | £ 500,000 | 105 (0) | 43 | 16 |
8 | 6 |
1 | 5 | 0 |
| Dundee | 01/12/1986 | 24/03/1989 | Signed | 89 (0) | 51 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Dundee Utd | 28/10/1983 | 01/12/1986 | Signed | 52 (0) | 8 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Clydebank | 01/08/1981 | 28/10/1983 | Signed | 80 (0) | 37 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Hillwood BC | 01/08/1980 | 01/08/1981 | No appearance data available | ||||||||
| Totals | £500,000 | 474 (27) | 201 | 6 (0) | 1 | 9 (0) | 0 | 3 (1) | 1 | ||
| goals / game | 0.4 | 0.16 | 0 | 0.25 | |||||||
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||||
Honours with Celtic
none
Pictures
Tommy Coyne
Link
by St Anthony from Celtic Underground (2011)
Back in the early 1970’s, in St Anthony’s primary school, there was great excitement when the school team reached the final of the Govan Fair cup. St Saviours were the opposition at the old ‘50 pitches’ venue and I can still recall the crestfallen older boys next day after their 5-0 defeat. All the boys could talk about was the performance of the St Saviours centre forward who scored all five goals. His name was Tommy Coyne.
Years later Tommy Coyne was to sign for his boyhood idols Celtic. His father was a member of the Govan Brighton (Street) supporters club which left from the old Albion Way pub in Govan’s ‘Wine Alley’ so Tommy came from a fine Celtic background and he would always be a source of pride to all the Celtic fans on the ‘Brighton’. Not many supporters’ clubs can claim to have had a future Celtic player as one of their own.
Tommy had a patchy start to his Celtic career. He came from Dundee in March 1989 in the same week that Frank McAvennie left for a huge sum to join West Ham and it was felt, unfairly, that Coyne was a direct replacement for McAvennie which manager Billy McNeill always insisted was never the case. His debut was at Tynecastle in a 1-0 win when McNeill fielded him on the wide left of a four man midfield. McNeill stated that this was a position he would be looking for Tommy to fill on occasions which was a puzzling statement considering that he was never played in that role ever again.
At the beginning of the 1989/90 season Darius Dzienanowski was signed to partner Tommy in attack but in truth the two of them never gelled to make a decent partnership. They were both good players but Tommy found it difficult playing with the talented but enigmatic Dziekanowski. The opening game at Tynecastle was perhaps Tommy’s best game in a Celtic jersey. He scored a splendid hat trick and the highlight of the game was a brilliant Paul McStay swivel, after a great run, to allow Tommy to slam in the third goal for his hat trick in a 3-1 win.
Unfortunately things went quickly down hill from there in that dreadful season. On November 4th 1989 Celtic took on Rangers at Ibrox. Half way through the second half, during a tight game, Joe Miller raced clear on the Rangers’ goal. Chris Woods saved his shot and the ball broke to Tommy who had a clear shot at goal from an angle and he smacked his shot off the post to the despair of the Celtic fans behind that goal. Late in the game an ex Celtic striker scored the winning goal for Rangers and such are the fates that befall us. Had Tommy scored with his chance then it could all have turned out so different.
Tommy gained a modicum of revenge in February 1990 when he scored the winning goal for Celtic against Rangers in the Scottish Cup on a day of filthy weather at Parkhead. Joe Miller fired a ball across goal and Tommy actually slid in to score with his stomach. As Tommy turned to take the acclaim for his goal his ex Dundee team mate John Brown angrily threw Tommy to the ground but thankfully Coyne ignored Brown’s provocation and carried on celebrating. This was also the day that Terry Butcher kicked in the dressing room door at Celtic Park after the final whistle.
The low point of Tommy’s Celtic career came in the autumn of 1990. He had fallen out of favour completely with Billy McNeill after the return of Charlie Nicholas to the club and on the day in September that Celtic gained a decent draw at Ibrox, Tommy was a substitute in the reserves at Parkhead behind such luminaries as John Hewitt and Dugald McCarrison. After this he was put on the transfer list as Celtic looked to move him on. At this stage in his career he showed a lot of character as he had been getting a tough time from an element of the Celtic support.
It’s to his eternal credit that he stuck at it at Parkhead. The turning point came in a midweek match against Motherwell in 1990. McNeill, frustrated with his goal shy strikers, decided to give Coyne a last chance. Celtic won 2-1 with Tommy scoring with two great finishes and he was not to look back. By the end of that season Tommy finished as top scorer with 17 goals which was a fantastic return considering that he had missed the first three months of the season.
There were a few highlights in that season. In January 1991 with Celtic struggling badly, the team produced a surprise by beating Aberdeen at Parkhead. The winning goal came in the last minute when Paul Elliott headed against the post and Tommy turned in the rebound. The explosion of joy from the Celtic crowd was fantastic and it showed that the fans were desperate for a bit of success during a barren period.
In March 1991 Tommy played his part in the two memorable wins against Rangers at Parkhead within seven days. In the second game Celtic ran out convincing 3-0 winners with Tommy scoring the third goal from a Paul McStay cross.
Liam Brady arrived as manager in 1991 and although Tommy was normally in his side it was felt that Brady was looking to replace him. Cascarino, Payton, Slater and McAvennie were all signed by Brady in an attempt to improve the Celtic attack although none of them were particularly successful.
Tommy missed most of the 1992/93 season with injury although he returned in January to score the winning goal against Airdrie at Broomfield on the day that Frank McAvennie made his second return in the hoops. Incidentally this game was played in the worst conditions I have ever seen at a game of football. Heavy rain had flooded the pitch and made it unplayable and it was a total farce from beginning to end.
In March 1993 Tommy eventually moved on to join Tranmere Rovers. It was not a happy spell and during his time in England his wife sadly passed away in very tragic circumstances. He came home to join Motherwell in November 1993.
Tommy became a cult hero with the Motherwell fans and he scored the winner against Celtic in the Scottish Cup at Fir Park in January 1994. This played a huge part in allowing Fergus McCann the opportunity to buy the club as this result virtually ended Celtic’s season. However some Celtic fans were not impressed with his reaction to that late cup winner and it was felt that his celebrations were a bit over the top.
Tommy redeemed himself in the eyes of the Celtic support in March 1998. With Rangers going for 10 in a row and Celtic frantically trying to stop them, Motherwell beat Rangers 2-1 at Fir Park. Coyne and Owen Coyle, both huge Celtic men, scored ‘Well’s goals that day and a Rangers supporting acquaintance of mine told me later that both men had ran themselves into the ground that day and that he had seen nothing like it. Thus Coyne and Coyle, indirectly, played a small part in Celtic’s title win of 1998.
Tommy was never considered worthy of a Scotland cap and as he had Irish grandparents Jack Charlton took advantage of the new ruling and Tommy made his debut for the Republic of Ireland against Switzerland in 1992 whilst still a Celtic player, much to the delight of the many people with similar Irish heritage back in Govan. This led to a fantastic journey as an Irish player which took him all the way to the 1994 World Cup finals in the USA. The Irish put up a great show by reaching the last 16 and Tommy played in the unforgettable 1-0 victory over Italy in the sweltering heat of New York City.
In closing here is a whimsical tale from May 1991. Celtic faced Saint Johnstone in Perth in a vital game in which they had to win to qualify for Europe. It was a frenzied affair and in the second half there was a stramash in the Saints’ penalty area which resulted in a defender knocking Tommy Coyne to the ground with a punch. A young Celtic fan ran on the field to defend Tommy’s honour and confront the Saints’ defender much to the delight of the huge Celtic support behind the goal.
As the Police waited to arrest the miscreant fan, Gerry Creaney physically barged past them and jostled the supporter back into the safety of the Celtic fans and preventing the fan being arrested. The entire ground was in uproar at this time and Tommy scored a penalty and thus Celtic made it to Europe after all.
Tommy Coyne came a long way from the St Saviours playground in Govan to the World Cup stadia in the USA. He was a superb goal scorer who if he had a turn of pace could have played in any company and it was a pleasure to have watched him in a Celtic jersey.
Dundee v Celtic conjures memories for Tommy Coyne
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/latest/dundee-v-celtic-conjures-memories-for-tommy-coyne-1-3680576
by ALAN PATTULLO
Updated on the 04 February 2015
Former striker recalls storied career and 1988 goal in Dundee’s last home win over Celtic
After Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie between Dundee and Celtic, reporters wishing to talk to those who have made their mark in the preceding 90 minutes will pass their requests to a press officer called Tommy. Born 27 years ago, he was named after the striker whose goal separated the teams the last time Dundee defeated Celtic at Dens Park.
There are probably several other Tommys of around that age who were born in Dundee at the time. While he didn’t stay long Coyne sealed a place in the hearts of one half of the city and irritated the other by scoring freely after crossing the great divide from Dundee United. “Thank you very much for Tommy Coyne!” Dundee fans sang at derbies, to the tune of the old Cadbury’s Roses ad.
There’s no getting away from it, it’s a long time ago now. And, for someone who once chronicled Coyne’s every move, more than a few frayed scrapbooks ago. So it’s a thrill to now be sitting opposite the man himself in a Glasgow restaurant. It’s unmistakably Tommy Coyne who rises to greet you even if he betrays evidence of a slight limp when he gets up from his seat.
A hip replacement several years ago means he does not even play fives now, nor does he go to the gym. Even so, he looks trim enough to still lead the line for Dundee, Celtic and any of the teams he once played for including, despite an accent by way of Govan, Republic of Ireland. He turned 52 on 14 November last year, the day Scotland hosted Ireland at Celtic Park in a vital European Championship qualifier.
It was a game you might have thought he would be desperate to attend, given his 22 caps for Ireland during days when Jack Charlton was reeling in players from all over with his elastic interpretation of eligibility rules. “I intended going,” says Coyne. “Then the closer it came I thought I am not sure I want to go. It meant getting tickets for me, my sons, maybe my dad too. That’s six tickets. It meant phoning up the FAI and saying I need six tickets. I don’t think so. They were only getting 2-3,000.”
So he watched Scotland’s 1-0 victory at home. “I wanted Ireland to win,” says someone who travelled to Spain to support Scotland at the World Cup finals in 1982. “Scotland never gave me a game, so why would I want them to win? If Scotland are playing someone else I would want Scotland to win but if Scotland are playing Ireland, I’d want Ireland to win. I don’t think it would be right if I wanted Scotland to win.”
He is slightly more torn over his allegiance this weekend. Mitchell, his ten-year-old son, recently found the YouTube footage of his father scoring for Dundee past Celtic goalkeeper Alan Rough on 24 September, 1988. Remarkably, with the sides due to meet again in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup this weekend, it stands as Dundee’s last victory at Dens against Celtic (indeed, Dundee’s only ever victory over Celtic in the Scottish Cup was in 1894, before they’d even moved to Dens).
In truth, the strike isn’t one of his finest, though if you watch the move develop from the beginning, it says everything about Coyne the player. He chests a pass down inside his own half, sweeps the ball out wide, and then is there on the edge of the six-yard box to bundle in a cross from the left from Keith Wright, his old strike partner in a productive double-act dubbed the Cobra (Coyne) and the Mongoose (Wright).
“My son doesn’t want Dundee to beat Celtic again,” he says. “He said if Dundee win then that record is gone. I said I know but sometimes you want those records to go.
“He’s a Celtic fan but now he plays for St Mirren youths I have told him he must want St Mirren to win, even if they play Celtic. You have to. Tommy junior – he still looks for Dundee results, he was born in Ninewells. I’d probably like Dundee to win. It gives them a chance to go and win a trophy. Celtic will always win trophies. It is not often Dundee get the chance.”
Even given his links to Dens, this must be difficult for a Celtic fan to admit. Growing up on Broomloan Road, in a now demolished row of tenement houses in the shadow of Ibrox, his loyalty to Celtic was hard earned. He and his father, Tommy senior, were members of the Govan Brighton Celtic supporters’ club, based in an area known as “Wine Alley”.
“We used to go on the bus through to places like Dundee on the old road, through Auchterarder, places like that,” he remembers. “I watched Jocky Scott, who signed me for Dundee, in the ’70s when Dundee had a great team, and I’d be in the away end.” Despite his commitment to Celtic, Coyne was beguiled by football, whoever was playing it. “They used to open the gates at Ibrox with ten minutes to go and I’d get warned by my dad: ‘if I ever see you in watching that Rangers….’ But I’d go and watch. It was a game of football. I remember seeing Davie Cooper, who I played with briefly at Motherwell, tear them apart [for Clydebank] in a League Cup section game.
“I was never ever going to sign for Rangers because they did not allow it at the time,” he continues. “The school I went to [St Saviour’s] wasn’t far away – just at the back of Ibrox. I’d been asked a few times but when it became clear what school I went to it was dismissed. There were [Rangers] people looking. As soon as they found out I went to a Roman Catholic school they’d say: ‘it is out of my hands’.”
Dundee United had no such qualms. They wanted to sign him on S forms when he was 14, Jim McLean tempting him with the offer of £5 in his bank account each month, which he could withdraw when he turned 16. Coyne declined, preferring to wait instead for the expected interest from Celtic. While it did come – Celtic assistant manager Sean Fallon used to pick him up from home and take him to training – the chance to sign did not.
Disappointed, Coyne took an apprenticeship as a joiner, joined Clydebank and began his senior playing career playing up front alongside Bobby Williamson. “We worked for the same company in Glasgow – he was a bricklayer at Lafferty builders,” Coyne recalls.
United did not give up their pursuit although Coyne wonders whether having to spend £65,000 on a player he could have got for nothing turned McLean against him. He signed for United in 1983, just after their league win and in time for a European Cup run where he featured in the semi-final, coming on as substitute in the first-leg win over AS Roma, a matter of months after working as a joiner in draughty Glasgow tenements.
His inability to break into the team had less to do with prejudice on McLean’s part than the standard of player he had to displace, including Paul Sturrock and Davie Dodds. But McLean, angered that Coyne was not making a better fist of it, turned to a hypnotist to get to the bottom of things. “It was me and Ralph Milne who got it. Wee Jim obviously expected more from us.”
Coyne is unsure whether it worked: “I bumped into the guy later, he tried to claim the credit for winning me a move to Dundee!”
He made his Dundee debut in December 1986 and though the team struck six times that afternoon in a resounding win over St Mirren, Coyne did not feature on the score-sheet. Indeed, he did not score for several games. “Here we go, I thought,” he says with a smile.
He broke his duck against East Fife, kicking off a spell when he could not stop scoring, pitching him into a race with other continental stars for the European golden boot. In season 1987/88, when Coyne struck 24 league goals by Christmas, Dundee fans became unusually preoccupied with the Turkish league, where Galatasaray striker Tanju Colak was matching their player goal for goal, and eventually, drew clear of him, as did others. Coyne finished fourth in Europe on 33 goals but was still invited to Monaco to be presented with an award by Uefa.
He wanted to take Wright, whose selflessness he felt helped him excel. Strangely for someone who easily struck-up partnerships, Coyne is identified with one of the more memorable lone-striker shifts. Charlton described his contribution to Ireland’s victory over Italy at the USA 94 World Cup as “one of the bravest” performances he’d seen. The No 15 chased lost causes, harried defenders. In the run-up to fellow Glaswegian Ray Houghton’s winner, it is Coyne who pressurises Alessandro Costacurta into making a mistake. He ran and ran that afternoon in the New Jersey heat, making himself ill in the process.
Summing up the Ireland era of the time, Charlton offered Coyne the chance to rehydrate – with Guinness: “I was walking along the corridor and he stuck his head out the door of his room and said: ‘in you come Tommy’. He had a bar in his room, Guinness was flowing. He said sit down, have a drink. It was Jack, [assistant] Maurice Setters and me. I had a coke. But they were sitting drinking. It was the World Cup. I could have had a pint if I’d wanted.”
Coyne adored his time with Ireland, scoring on his debut v Switzerland and often side-lining more stellar names such as John Aldridge and Tony Cascarino, the £1 million misfit signing for Celtic who had ousted him from the team at Parkhead.
“I felt sorry for Tony,” says Coyne. “I don’t know whether the pressure got to him. [Liam] Brady brought him in and he wasn’t doing it. The manager kept sticking by him and when he took him off the fans were booing him and cheering me as I came on. That got the manager’s back up against me.
“Me coming on and them cheering me made me feel good but I think the manager was thinking: ‘I am the one who picks the team, you will not tell me what to do’. So he tried to get me away. I was always in and out and I needed to play. I had the chance to go to England and whether I should have gone or not… it just seemed I was languishing. I was not getting any younger.”
Even the manager who signed Coyne for Celtic, in a £500,000 deal from Dundee, jettisoned him. At the start of the 1990-91 season Billy McNeill exiled Coyne from the team until November, when a combination of injuries and poor form saw him forced to turn to the striker for a midweek clash with Motherwell. Coyne scored twice in a 2-1 victory. By the end of the season he was the highest scorer in the Premier Division, again.
“The majority of Celtic fans have a lot of regard for me,” Coyne says. “I think they realise that at the time the team wasn’t winning things. Had it been another era I would have been more successful. There is always going to be some fans who do not like you; there was an element who did not really take to me. But that happens to everyone. People can be like that.”
It says everything about Coyne’s character that he was able to recover from these football-associated knockbacks, just as he did after enduring the most tragic, cruellest blow of all when his wife Alison died in desperately sad circumstances during his time with Tranmere Rovers, shortly after the birth of Bradley, their third son.
“Football gave me a focus, I was fortunate in that respect,” he says, on the subject of raising three sons by himself prior to meeting wife Anita, with whom he has two more children – Mitchell and an eight-year old daughter, Stelli (four sons and then a daughter, Coyne notes, the direct opposite to his own parents, who had four daughters and then a son).
Coyne returned to Scotland with Motherwell, where he spent his longest spell with one club and where, arguably, he tasted most success, finishing second in the league in 1993/94 under Alex McLeish (he also topped the Scottish goal charts again, with a third different club – a unique achievement).
A storied career, but no winners’ medals, no golden boot? The modest Coyne just shrugs, as well he should. He has memories of swapping shirts with a veritable who’s who of world football in the 1990s, including Roberto Baggio, Ronald Koeman and Lothar Matthaus. “They are now lying in a bag,” he says. “Not in a frame or anything. My boys used to wear them to football training – that is what they are for. Now I am thinking what a waste, maybe I should sell them. They are no use whatsoever. It burdens everyone else, things hanging about to do with me.”
Tommy Coyne
https://thecelticunderground.substack.com/p/tommy-coyne
Saint Anthony provides his reflections on a striker, he believes was the right guy at the wrong time
The Celtic Underground
Jul 29, 2024
On 1 March 1989, Tommy Coyne achieved a lifetime’s ambition by signing for his boyhood idols Celtic, for a fee of £500,000. Coyne had been a great asset to Dundee, and had been the SPL’s top goal scorer in 1987-88, when he had outgunned the likes of Ally McCoist, Frank McAvennie, John Robertson and Kevin Gallacher, from the modest setting of Dens Park.
In typical Celtic fashion, the Celts then sold star striker Frank McAvennie to West Ham for a cool £1,250,000, and although Tommy was never intended to be Frank’s direct replacement, there was a perception amongst the supporters that this was the case. The pressure from this seemed to have an adverse effect on Tommy in his early Celtic appearances, where he couldn’t manage a goal.
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At the start of the 1989-90 season Tommy was named in the Celtic attack alongside their new Polish import, Dariusz Dziekanowski. ‘Big Jackie’ as he was christened by the fans had been Celtic’s response to the Mo Johnston debacle that summer, and the hope was that he would forge a profitable strike partnership with Tommy. The initial signs were good when Tommy scored his first Celtic goals, a fine hat trick in the 3-1 win at Tynecastle on the opening day of the season, always a difficult place for any Celtic team to visit.
Celtic’s form was decent until the devastating European elimination against Partizan Belgrade in the ECWC at the end of September. After that game, many players seemed to lose form and there was unrest, with inspirational captain Roy Aitken said to be especially unhappy and angling for a move, which he eventually got to Newcastle United. The tide had turned badly against Celtic after they visited Ibrox on 4 November 1989. With Johnston struggling to win over the Rangers fans, the game was delicately balanced at 0-0, halfway through the second half when Joe Miller broke clear at the Celtic end of the ground. With Rangers’ goalkeeper Chris Woods grounded after keeping Miller’s effort out, the ball broke to Tommy just 5 yards out and his shot struck the post with an open goal gaping. In the last minute, Johnston scored a late winner for Rangers and such are the fine margins in football. Many of us still wonder what the outcome would have been in both players’ fortunes had Tommy actually snapped up that Ibrox chance. Fate can be a funny thing.
Tommy fell from favour with Billy McNeill and when Charlie Nicholas arrived in the summer of 1990 he found himself out of the team selection. In September 1990 he was actually a substitute for the reserves against Rangers at Parkhead on the day Derek Whyte scored at Ibrox in a 1-1 draw. It was difficult to see any way back for Tommy Coyne at that time. This was his lowest ebb as a Celtic player and rumours were that he would be allowed to leave the club should a suitable offer come in for him.
When Celtic narrowly lost the 1990 LCF to Rangers in October, Billy McNeill lost patience with his misfiring strikers and brought Tommy back into the team for a midweek game against Motherwell on 6 November. Within 33 minutes, Tommy had scored twice in Celtic’s 2-1 win, and he was not to look back. Between that game and the end of the season he scored an impressive tally of 21 goals, which made him once again, the SPL top scorer for the season. This was a remarkable achievement considering he hadn’t been picked for first team action until November. Perhaps the highlight had been the winner against Aberdeen in January 1991, in the last minute of the game, when he swooped to score after Paul Elliott’s header was cleared off the line. The roar and expression of joy from the Celtic supporters that afternoon was an indication of how desperate the fans were for the team to do well during a hugely difficult period. There is a certain irony that Tommy’s goal arguably cost Aberdeen the league title on the last game of the season. Once again, fate can be a funny thing.
Billy McNeill was sacked in the summer of 1991 with Liam Brady being appointed as his replacement. Brady’s first signing was the lumbering striker Tony Cascarino for a club record £1,100,000 fee from Aston Villa. Competition for a place in Celtic’s attack was fierce with Coyne, Cascarino, Creaney, Nicholas and Miller all vying for a place in the forward line. There was always the feeling that Brady didn’t fancy Tommy although he still maintained a good run of scoring form. Brady then signed Stuart Slater and Andy Payton for considerable fees in summer of 1992 and even then, Tommy continued to score goals. However, an injury in the autumn kept him out of the team and, although he fought his way back to scoring the winner on a mudbath Broomfield pitch on 23 January 1993 on a day of atrocious wet weather, other clubs made it clear that they were interested in obtaining his services. With Celtic in a bad way financially due to Brady’s poor signings, Tommy was sold to Tranmere Rovers in March 1993.
What kind of player was Tommy Coyne ? He was an excellent finisher, whose forte was bearing in on the goalkeeper, one on one, where he had an excellent finishing technique and a fine record of scoring. He was mobile and good in the air, however, if he had a burst of pace then he would likely have been playing in one of Europe’s top leagues. Jack Charlton alluded to this fact when he chose Tommy for Ireland, when Charlton had taken advantage of the new grandparent rule for Tommy to represent the Republic of Ireland due to his Irish heritage.
Tommy came back to Scotland with Motherwell, and in 1998 he was to help influence Celtic’s fortunes once more with Rangers going for 10-in-a-row and Celtic neck and neck with them in a highly tense title run in. Motherwell beat Rangers 2-1 at Fir Park in late March and a Motherwell acquaintance of mine stated that Tommy Coyne and Owen Coyle, another boyhood Celtic fan, had run themselves into the ground that day to ensure a Motherwell win which was to have such a positive effect for Celtic at the end of that highly important season.
Tommy Coyne is fondly remembered by those who saw him in action for Celtic. The only regret us that he didn’t play for the Celts at a more settled period in the club’s history.