George O'Boyle

Last updated

George O'Boyle
Personal information
Date of birth (1967-12-14) 14 December 1967 (age 55)
Place of birth Belfast, Northern Ireland
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1984–1985 Manchester City 0 (0)
1985–1986 Distillery 24 (4)
1986–1987 Linfield 22 (12)
1987–1989 Bordeaux 3 (0)
1988–1989 → Linfield (loan) 24 (9)
1989–1990 → Dunfermline Athletic (loan) 28 (3)
1990–1994 Dunfermline Athletic 67 (26)
1994–2001 St Johnstone 146 (64)
2001 Raith Rovers 5 (0)
2001 Brechin City 5 (2)
2001–2002 Queen of the South 7 (3)
2002–2003 Glenavon 33 (9)
2003–2004 Ards 9 (0)
2004–2006 Bo'ness United 64 (24)
2006 Kelty Hearts 0 (0)
2006–2008 Carnoustie Panmure 4 (0)
Total441(156)
International career
1994–1998 Northern Ireland 13 (1)
1998 Northern Ireland B 1 (1)
Managerial career
2015–2016 Albert Foundry
2016–2019 Distillery (joint-manager)
2019 Harland & Wolff Welders (joint-manager)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

George O'Boyle (born 14 December 1967 in Belfast) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer and now manager.

Contents

Playing career

Club football

O'Boyle, a striker, began his career in 1984 as a youth-team player with Manchester City. He was part of the Maine Road club's youth academy before earning a two-year contract. [1]

After being released by City when he reached the age of 18, he returned to his native Belfast, finding a home on the Shankill Road, [1] to join Distillery, then managed by Roy Welsh, [1] in November 1985. The club won the County Antrim Shield in his first season. [2]

He moved to Linfield in 1986. [1]

O'Boyle left Northern Ireland in 1988 to join French club Bordeaux. [1]

He returned to Linfield on loan in 1989. [1]

In 1989 he joined Dunfermline Athletic, [3] initially on loan for a year, before signing permanently for £250,000. [1]

In 1994, he was signed by St Johnstone manager Paul Sturrock for a tribunal-decided £200,000 fee. He reached both the high and low points of his career during his seven years at McDiarmid Park. However, injury struck again; O'Boyle once more ruptured a cruciate ligament, while he required two operations on a groin problem. [1]

O'Boyle played in the 1998 Scottish League Cup Final defeat by Rangers.

On 5 January 2001, O'Boyle and St Johnstone teammate Kevin Thomas were sacked following drug-taking allegations. The two players, it was alleged, were found using an unidentified white powder (allegedly cocaine) at the club's Christmas 2000 party in Perth's That Bar. [4] The SPL attempted to overturn the sacking but it was over-ruled by the SFA. [5] [6]

After leaving St Johnstone, O'Boyle joined Raith Rovers for four months, before moving on to Brechin City and Queen of the South, with whom he finished his professional career. [1]

He returned to Northern Ireland to play for Glenavon [7] and Ards, only to return to Scotland in 2004 to play for junior clubs Bo'ness and Kelty Hearts. He failed to make an appearance for the latter club, due to injury.

International football

O'Boyle's international career spanned four years. In 1996, he scored his only Northern Ireland goal in a 1–1 draw with Germany in his hometown of Belfast.

Honours

Distillery

Linfield

Dunfermline Athletic

St Johnstone

Coaching career

O'Boyle managed Carnoustie Panmure, the final club for which he played. [1]

He would leave football altogether until 2015, when he became assistant to manager Colin McIlwaine at Northern Amateur Football League club Albert Foundry. [8] In the summer of 2016 O'Boyle followed McIlwaine to Lisburn Distillery, again taking up the role of assistant. [9] The duo resigned in April 2019. [10]

O'Boyle and McIlwaine became the new joint-managers of NIFL Championship side Harland & Wolff Welders just a couple of days after departing Distillery. [11] They both left the club in December, seven months after their appointments. [12]

Outside of football

O'Boyle started his own oven-cleaning business in Lisburn in 2010.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisburn Distillery F.C.</span> Association football club in Northern Ireland

Lisburn Distillery Football Club is a Northern Irish intermediate football club who are based in Ballyskeagh, County Down. A founder member of the Irish League, they currently play in the NIFL Premier Intermediate League, the third tier of the Northern Ireland Football League. The club was simply known as Distillery Football Club from 1880 to 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Healy (footballer)</span> Northern Irish footballer & manager

David Jonathan Healy is a Northern Irish former professional footballer and now football manager who is in charge at NIFL Premiership club Linfield.

Thomas James Wright is a Northern Irish football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of Kilmarnock.

Glenn Ferguson is a Northern Irish former football player and manager.

Stephen John Baxter is a Northern Irish football manager and retired footballer. He is the current manager of Crusaders, where he had two spells as a player, and is currently the longest serving manager of one club in world football.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Premiership (Northern Ireland)</span> Football league

The Women's Premiership is the top level women's football league of Northern Ireland. The league was called the NIWFA Division League 1 until 2003 and Premier League until 2015. In 2016, it was rebranded the Women's Premiership and is run by the NI Football League since.

Scott Young is a Scottish former professional footballer, turned manager.

Daniel Gerard Devine is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Scottish club Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Paul Kee is a retired Irish footballer who played in numerous positions, including striker and midfielder. He is the former manager of Institute Football Club and current manager of Harland and Wolf Welders.

The 2012–13 IFA Premiership was the 5th season of the IFA Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland, and the 112th season of Irish league football overall.

David Armstrong is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays for Mid-Ulster Football League side Ballymacash Rangers F.C. He previously played for IFA Premiership side Dungannon Swifts, as a defender. He began his career with Scottish Premier League side Heart of Midlothian and had loan spells at Crusaders, Cowdenbeath and Raith Rovers. Armstrong has represented Northern Ireland at under-17, 19 and 21 levels.

The 2013–14 NIFL Premiership was the 6th season of the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland, the 113th season of Irish league football overall, and the 1st season of the league operating as part of the newly-created Northern Ireland Football League.

The 2013–14 NIFL Championship was the sixth season since its establishment after a major overhaul of the league system in Northern Ireland. This was the first season that the league was operated by the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL), which took over from the Irish Football Association (IFA) for the 2013–14 season onwards. The season began on 9 August 2013 and ended on 10 May 2014.

The 2013–14 Irish Cup was the 134th edition of the Irish Cup, the premier knock-out cup competition in Northern Irish football since its introduction in 1881. The competition began on 7 September 2013 with the first round and ended on 3 May 2014 with the final. The competition ran without a principal sponsor, but for the second successive season the final was known as the Marie Curie Irish Cup final, after the IFA once again awarded the naming rights for the final to the charity Marie Curie Cancer Care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Ireland Football League</span> Football league

The Northern Ireland Football League, known as the Irish League, is the national football league of Northern Ireland. The Irish League was originally formed in 1890, with the league in its current format created in 2013 to assume independent collective management of the top three levels of the Northern Ireland football league system; namely the Premiership, Championship and Premier Intermediate League.

Shankill United Predators Football Club is a women's association football club based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and play at Hammer Park. They were founded in the 1990s as Predators F.C. and have undergone a number of name changes since foundation. They currently play in the Women's Championship after being relegated from the Women's Premier League in 2014.

The 2016–17 Irish Cup was the 137th edition of the Irish Cup, the premier knock-out cup competition in Northern Irish football since its introduction in 1881. The competition began on 19 August 2016 and concluded with the final at Windsor Park on 6 May 2017.

David Cushley is a Northern Irish semi-professional footballer who plays as a forward for NIFL Premiership side Carrick Rangers.

The 2017–18 Irish Cup was the 138th edition of the Irish Cup, the premier knock-out cup competition in Northern Irish football since its introduction in 1881. The competition began on 19 August 2017 and concluded with the final at Windsor Park in May 2018.

The 2018–19 Irish Cup was the 139th edition of the Irish Cup, the premier knock-out cup competition in Northern Irish football. The competition began on 11 August 2018 and concluded with the final at Windsor Park on 4 May 2019.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Alex Mills interview with George O’Boyle in Sunday Life" - Linfield F.C., 30 September 2018
  2. ↑ "DISTILLERY: New management set out to let the good times roll" - Bainbridge Leader, 25 May 2016
  3. ↑ @officialdafc (23 July 2015). "Throwback Thursday: George O'Boyle joins Ross Jack celebrate during the 1989/90 season. #TBT" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ↑ O'Boyle sacked by St Johnstone – BBC Sport
  5. ↑ O'Boyle and Thomas lodge court appeal – BBC Sport
  6. ↑ Sacked pair talk of drug scandal – BBC Sport
  7. ↑ BBC Sport's Northern Ireland page
  8. ↑ GEORGE O'BOYLE: SHANKILL MAN A DUNFERMLINE AND ST JOHNSTONE LEGEND.
  9. ↑ DISTILLERY: New management set out to let the good times roll
  10. ↑ "Lisburn Distillery announce resignations of management team Colin McIlwaine and George O’Boyle" - BelfastLive, 5 April 2019
  11. ↑ "Harland and Wolff Welders new management team announced" - BelfastLive, 6 April 2019
  12. ↑ "H&W Welders part company with management team Colin McIlwaine and George O'Boyle" - BelfastLive, 9 December 2019
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.