GARY LINEKER once begged to be taken off against Sligo Rovers after an enraged Gavin Dykes booted him all over the Showgrounds.
Bit O’Red icon Dykes, who made his debut for his local club after a few pints, told how the England golden boy had insulted his team and had to pay.
In the final episode of this season’s This Is Your LOIfe, former Sligo goalie Nicky Broujos teed up the story of when Spurs came to play in 1991 complete with England’s future Match of the Day host centre forward.
He said: “I remember Gary Lineker asked to be subbed at a friendly in the Showgrounds because Gavin was kicking the proverbials out of him.
“Gary had insulted Sligo during the game. After one tackle Lineker said, ‘F***in’ hell mate, I’ve an international career to look after’. Gavin said, ‘F*** you, and your international career.’ And Lineker was signalling at the bench to take him off quick.”
Gavin, now 57, who played for Rovers in the 1980s and 90s added: “It was funny, he sort of made a comment about the grass and he said have you got no lawnmowers over here then that was the first statement to which I replied I was going to kill him.
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“The funny thing was that he wrote an article that was sent to me from the Times where he hated pre-season and he says that the worst place he ever was for pre-season was in Sligo, because usually the centre halves, he’d let them head the ball and make them look good because he didn’t want to get kicked in pre-season.
“But this particular fella that he met in Sligo, he said didn’t care, he just wanted to kick me and everything else.
“Jake, my son, met him at the World Cup in Qatar and he said it to him about Sligo and he says ‘yeah I remember it’. And he says ‘if that was your father I wouldn’t have talked to you’.
“He was a superstar at the time.”
Dykes made his Rovers debut at 19 against Cork City after a morning in the pub in 1988.
He told Neil O’Riordan: “I played for Strand Celtic in the Sunday morning Junior League and we used to go back to the local pub out near Strand Hill, Sunny Bree’s.
“I went back I think we won the match and went back in had a couple of pints and a phone rang in the bar, and it was me father looking for me to say that Tony McGee the secretary of Sligo Rovers had been down at the house looking for me to go in and play in the Showgrounds in the afternoon.
“I got a lift in the town, grabbed me bag went down to the Showgrounds met (manager) Jerry Mitchell, Lord of Mercy, and he said to me ‘look he said you probably won’t be used’.
“He said but we’ve had a couple of injuries and went and I walked into a dressing room knew one or two the local lads but it was full of Dublin guys that I never met.
“And he’s named me in the team at right back and I for the first 20 minutes I was really good and then I hit a brick wall, and the great Patsy Freyne was playing outside left for Cork and what a player he was.
‘I THOUGHT I WAS BAD’
“And I said to him ‘Jesus I’m dying, I had a few pints this morning’.
“And he said ‘I thought I was bad having a few last night.’”
Despite all that, he remained in the team.
Dykes experienced incredible highs and a few lows at Rovers, which was being run at the time by his father Kevin.
‘NOBODY TOOK THEM’
Early on Gavin’s playing days under Dermot Keely, Kevin walked into the dressing room after a heavy defeat.
He said: “We went to Galway and we got beaten 5-0 by a not-so-good Galway team. We were really, really poor on the day and Dermot wanted to resign.
“My father went into the dressing room and I remember him throwing the wages on the table and his words were, anybody who thinks they deserve them take them. And in fairness to a man, nobody took their wages.
“Not one of them and I don’t think that would have happened maybe before. Nobody took them.”
MORE GOOD TIMES THAN BAD
There were far more good times than bad at the Showgrounds including a treble in 1993/94 while the club was in the First Division and yet miraculously won the FAI Cup.
Dykes captained the side, and before he moved on to win a title playing with Derry City there was a European adventure under former Wimbledon FA Cup hero Laurie Sanchez.
“The funny thing was that he wrote an article that was sent to me from the Times where he hated pre-season and he says that the worst place he ever was for pre-season was in Sligo, because usually the centre halves, he’d let them head the ball and make them look good because he didn’t want to get kicked in pre-season. But this particular fella that he met in Sligo, he said didn’t care, he just wanted to kick me and everything else.”
Gavin Dykes
He said: “We went to Bruges, we played Bruges first here and that was an experience and a half because we were well in it in the game, the Showgrounds was packed and I remember coming, (wife) Siobhan was living the other side of town and I left her home and I was coming back through town and I met a bunch of their supporters and they had no money and they were looking for some food.
“So we went into their local takeaway with the whole lot of them, bought a few bags of chips from them and everything else.
‘DIDN’T MATTER ABOUT THE RESULT’
“And when we went back to Bruges I met the same fellas you know and we had a great night, it didn’t matter about the result but we had a great night.”
Old pal Nicky took up the story: “We had great times under Laurie Sanchez, we played Bruges and the European Cup and Gavin was outstanding in Bruges.
“After the game some of the Bruges supporters brought us for a session, I had the guitar and Gavin was singing his party piece which is Pretty Little Girl from Omaha and Sanchez couldn’t believe what he got himself into as we had the whole bar singing Irish songs.
“They liked the craic with our supporters and they were just really nice.”
MEMORABLE STINTS
Dykes enjoyed some memorable stints in the dugout as reluctant manager and coach at Derry City, Sligo Rovers and Finn Harps among others.
The most memorable game he managed was probably a promotion/relegation play off between Derry and Harps in 2003 when he implored a man he rates the best he ever stood on a pitch with (including Lineker) to provide one more piece of magic.
City won 2-1 after extra time at a packed Brandywell thanks to an iconic striker who came on as sub.
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He said: “It was hugely emotional because I knew if we went down, you were looking at serious trouble. You know, Derry were in serious, serious trouble. It would have had a huge financial hit. And like that night, the memories of Liam Coyle wasn’t fit enough and, you know, he went on on one leg.
“We were out on our legs totally, you know. It was probably the best team talk I ever gave in my life before extra time because all I said was, ‘your careers are finished if you go down’. Everybody’s careers finished here, you know.
“And I looked at Liam Coyle and I said, ‘just go and get a goal, will you?’ Simple as, just do what you do. And he did.
“Last game. He was on his last legs, you know. And what a fitting end for a man of his calibre to finish, you know. It kept Derry up that year and it was vital that that happened.”
- EPISODE 6 of This is Your LOIfe is out on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.
