Mick Byrne (Irish footballer)

Michael Byrne (born 14 January 1960 in Dublin) was an Irish football player during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Mick Byrne
Personal information
Full name Michael Byrne
Date of birth (1960-01-14) 14 January 1960
Place of birth Dublin, Ireland
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1978–1981 Bohemians 45 (8)
1981–1984 Shelbourne 68 (23)
1984–1988 Shamrock Rovers 87 (42)
1988 ADO Den Haag 12 (2)
1988 Shamrock Rovers 0 (0)
1988–1990 Huddersfield Town[1] 56 (11)
1989–1990 → Shelbourne (loan) 14 (4)
1990–1991 Shamrock Rovers 16 (4)
1991–1992 Sligo Rovers 27 (4)
1992 Dundalk 3 (0)
1992 Shelbourne 3 (0)
1992–1995 Monaghan United 83 (25)
1995 → Dundalk(loan) 8 (4)
1995–1996 Dundalk 16 (3)
1996 St James's Gate 1 (0)
1996 Athlone Town 1 (0)
1996–1997 Shamrock Rovers 1 (0)
International career
1984 League of Ireland XI 1 (0)
Managerial career
1996–1997 St James's Gate F.C.
1997–1999 Shamrock Rovers
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

He made his Bohs debut in the 1979 FAI League Cup final win over Shamrock Rovers on 22 March 1979. He made his League of Ireland debut three days later.

He had a spell at Shelbourne, where he was Player of the Month in February 1982.[2]

He attracted the interest of Manchester City during his time at Shels.[3]

Byrne signed for Shamrock Rovers in the summer of 1984.

In each of his three seasons at Milltown, he won the domestic double as well as represented the League in the Olympic qualifiers. He was the top scorer in the 1986–87 League of Ireland Premier Division season [4][5] and made 6 appearances in European competition. Transfer talks with AS Saint-Étienne[6] and Feyenoord[7] didn't work out so after 72 goals in 146 games, in January 1988 Mick signed for FC Den Haag thus ending an extraordinarily successful period at Rovers.

He briefly re-signed for Rovers again in July 1988 but after 3 goals in 6 games he left for Huddersfield Town A.F.C. the following month for £20,000. After two seasons in which he scored 11 goals in 56 league games, he came back to Rovers for the club's first season in the RDS but left in January 1991 after 5 goals in 20 appearances for Sligo Rovers as the club had an abundance of strikers. At Sligo, he scored 6 goals in 34 total appearances, 27 in the league.

During his time at Rovers, he scored 46 league goals and 10 goals in the FAI Cup. He also played in 3 1988 Summer Olympics qualifiers, scoring twice.

He had two more spells at Shels and also represented Dundalk F.C., Monaghan United, St. James's Gate F.C. (one game) and Athlone Town during his career. With Monaghan he finished as the 1992–93 League of Ireland First Division top scorer and his 15 league goals helped them gain promotion.[4][5]

He was Rovers top goalscorer in 1984/85, 1986/87 and 1987/88 and made 5 appearances in Europe.

At the end of the 2012 League of Ireland season Byrne is joint twenty seventh in the all-time League of Ireland goalscoring list with 117 league goals [4]

Management career

In 1996, he managed St. James's Gate F.C. for two games, playing once, before their resignation from the league. He then returned to Rovers as assistant manager to Pat Byrne before taking over as the manager for the 1997/98 season. In his first season in charge he guided the club to a win in Europe[8] but his second season ended badly as Rovers finished 8th. He was replaced by Damien Richardson.

Honours

Club
Shamrock Rovers
Bohemians

Individual

References
  1. HUDDERSFIELD TOWN : 1946/47 – 2007/08, Newcastle Fans.
  2. www.irishtimes.com
  3. www.irishtimes.com
  4. "Ireland - List of Topscorers". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  5. Graham, Alex (2005). Football in the Republic of Ireland a Statistical Record 1921–2005. Soccer Books Limited. ISBN 1-86223-135-4.
  6. www.irishtimes.com
  7. www.irishtimes.com
  8. Archived 29 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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