Tommy Coyne

Saint Anthony provides his reflections on a striker, he believes was the right guy at the wrong time

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.

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.