Mick Byrne

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

He made his league debut as a Bohemians player on the 25th of March 1979 and after a spell at Shelbourne, where he was Player of the Month in February 1982[1].

He attracted the interest of Manchester City during his time at Shels[2].

He 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 representing the League in the Olympic qualifiers. He was the league top scorer in the 1986/87 season [3] and made 6 appearances in European competition. Transfer talks with St. Etienne [4] and Feyenoord[5] didnt 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 resigned for Rovers again in July 1988 but after 3 goals in 6 games he left for Huddersfield Town F.C. the following month. After two seasons he came back to Rovers for the clubs 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.

During his time at Rovers he scored 46 league goals and 10 goals in the FAI Cup.

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 First Division top scorer in the 1992/93 season as his 15 league goals helped them to promotion.

In 1996 he managed St. James's Gate F.C. for two games 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 [6] but his second season ended badly as Rovers finished 8th. He was replaced by Damien Richardson.

Mick is currently on the coaching staff at St Patricks Athletic.

As of April 2007, he is joint 24th in the all time goalscoring charts in the League of Ireland with 117 goals.[7]

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

[edit] Honours