Garry Haylock looks back on his Irish League life

Growing up through the ranks at Huddersfield Town, Haylock made his way to the Irish League in 1993, signing for Linfield after a successful three-year spell with Shelbourne.

Haylock was a prolific goalscorer wherever he went - netting 76 goals in 121 appearances for Linfield which helped secure a multiple trophy haul in the 1993/94 season before he moved on to play for Portadown, Glenavon, Glentoran and Ards across Northern Ireland.

He admittedly didn’t know much about Linfield before joining the club but says it’s unlike any other he turned out for in his 18-year playing career.

“Trevor Anderson (the manager) travelled down with Jim Emery and they gave me an offer,” said Haylock. “I went up to look around Windsor Park and even at the time it was a fantastic facility.

“Trevor was clever, we had a chat and then he told me to go and have a look around the stadium with Gary Eccles and once you have a look around Windsor Park you are sold.

“I agreed a deal and I signed for £35,000 which I think was the record move at the time so there was a lot of pressure and they wouldn’t let me play any pre-season games because they were afraid someone would kick me.

“We had a very good side with myself and Dessie Gorman up front plus people like Noel Bailie, Jeff Spiers, John Easton, Gary Peebles and Lee Doherty...three months in we signed Pat Fenlon.

“I still remember being on the train and telling my Mum, who is from Yorkshire and had never been abroad – it didn’t sit well with her that I wasn’t 10 minutes down the road!

“I told her I was going to Belfast and she was terrified because it was 1993 before the Good Friday Agreement and those first six months were savage.

“There were loads of shootings going on and a bomb went off before we played Dinamo Tbilisi in the Champions League that blew in the front windows of the hotel.

“I remember a bomb going off near the training ground and being terrified, but the lads just looked at me thinking what was I doing!

“I went to a lot of Supporters’ Club end-of-season events and I’ve never played for a club like it.

“I played at some decent clubs but never one like Linfield where there is so much passion around it and then when I left it became a bit trickier.”

Haylock made what was described at the time as “one of the most controversial transfers in the history of the Irish League” when he joined Portadown in 1995, helping Ronnie McFall’s side win the league title in his first season at Shamrock Park by scoring a league-high 19 goals.

Travelling up from Dublin to Belfast had taken its toll on Haylock and following other off-field issues, the striker knew he wanted to leave Linfield.

His heart was set on a return to Shelbourne but with the finances not in place to make that a reality, the opportunity came about to join Portadown.

He fired in 95 goals in his 155 appearances before departing for a new challenge in Greece.

“The second year I was there I had scored 10 goals in the last 12 games and kept us up,” said Haylock. “I played really well, scored a lot of goals out of nothing, worked my socks off and I got a really good contract off the back of it.

“My wife had a miscarriage during that season and there were a lot of problems.

“She got pregnant again and the child was born in August of my third year at Portadown and I’ll be honest to say I probably didn’t earn my money.

“We were so concerned about her and it was a really difficult period.

“We had signed Vinny Arkins and he came in and scored goals.

“Vinny became the favourite boy and I ended up playing on the right wing or in centre midfield.

“I was offered a free transfer and that I could go anywhere I wanted outside of Northern Ireland.”

Haylock’s time at Glentoran was all too short for his liking and it remains one of his biggest regrets that he didn’t stay at The Oval beyond a three-month loan period.

Glentoran finished one point behind champions Portadown in the 2001/02 season.

“I met a lot of good people and at Glentoran it was a really good group with Paul Leeman, Colin Nixon, Chris Walker and Michael Halliday,” he said. “If I look back, it was a regret that I didn’t stay with Glentoran.

“My three months were up and they had made me an offer.

“We were on our way out of the ground and stopped at the traffic lights when journalist Denis O’Hara pulled up alongside.

“He said he believed the deal was done and I was wound up and I said “I’ve been made an offer but it doesn’t make me jump for joy”.

“I got a call on the Monday to say I had upset a lot of people by saying the offer didn’t make me jump for joy (in the newspaper).

“I was told they were withdrawing the offer.

“I had scored something like 10 goals in 16 games, we were top of the league and I was flying.

“I met the Dundalk manager, who literally doubled my money and I signed the deal.

“I got a phone call two days later from one of the directors at Glentoran saying they would like to come back to me with an offer but I had already signed for Dundalk.

“That year, they finished second in the league and I still believe I would have scored enough goals to get them the points they needed to win the league.

“I was on fire that season.”

Now 49 years old, Haylock runs his own coaching business after a spell in club management where he led Hayes & Yeading to the Conference while he also spent time in various roles at Exeter City.

He has no desire to enter back into the stresses of club management unless the ideal opportunity comes his way but did briefly consider applying for a job at one of his former clubs.

“The problem I have is that the job I want I would never get offered,” he said. “I would want a club that gives me time to build something because that can take 18 months to three years and clubs don’t give you that time.

“The jobs that are available are with the ones that keep sacking their managers and that’s why they don’t have success.

“I just look at that and think is it worth the hassle because the enjoyable part is being on the grass coaching the players.

“I said to myself that if I was still living there (Northern Ireland) then I definitely would have gone into management.

“The Portadown job came up after Ronnie McFall left and I looked at it, I wasn’t sure about it and I stayed in England.

“I would have liked the Linfield job, the Shelbourne job, the Dundalk job but I would have to commit to it and get the knowledge.

“I haven’t seen enough games or know enough about the league now.”