THE QUEUE FOR the coffee shop is long and slow.
The pub looks far more inviting, especially in this cold.
The Hole in the Wall on Dublin’s Blackhorse Avenue is always a welcome sight for many of the Phoenix Park’s thirsty walkers.
Its Christmas decorations are famous in this part of the country and the outside lights dangle unlit in preparation for the festive period, when their glow will act as a sort of technicolour signal for porter.
But a week out from the FAI Cup final the time is not right for a pint with Shelbourne’s Mark Coyle.
Seven days earlier, though, well that would have been a different story.
With manager Damien Duff’s blessing – and encouragement – the squad met on the city’s northside the day after their final league game at Tolka Park to toast a season that saw them consolidate their Premier Division status and will conclude with today’s showpiece against Derry City at Aviva Stadium.
No enforced alcohol bans or demented curfews to limit his players social lives.
“That is what the manager has done all season, he’s treated us like adults and trusted us to do things at the right time. The gaffer knows we’re not going to take the piss with it because he has done so much for all of us,” midfielder Coyle, who is in a house share nearby with teammates Aodh Dervin, Daniel Hawkins, Dan Carr and Scott van-der-Sluis, explains.
“He knows how hard we work every day because you can’t get away with not working every single day, so he sees the other side of it and what has been needed to bring a new team, and group of people, together.
“It is all for nothing if you don’t bond and have that connection with the people beside you in the dressing room. We go out together and we will have a drink, we will go for coffees, some of us play golf, the time we have out in Portmarnock [beach] after games recovering is great.
“The memories we have been making together this season, just by all being together, little things like cooking together and for each other in the house, are times we will never forget. It is why I moved down here to try and change my life, the manager is the one who has helped make it possible.”
Mentions of the manager and gaffer are plentiful.
But definitely not ‘Duffer’, that bad habit among some in the Shels squad was stamped out early on when his assistant, another former Ireland international, Joey O’Brien, made it be known that it wasn’t acceptable.
A fine system of €10 was introduced for any player guilty of being overly familiar by saying ‘Duffer’ in interviews.
At the same time, Duff has made a point of making sure to try and build a connection with his players that goes beyond the norm.
The gestures range from helping source accommodation for some of the new arrivals by going on property website Daft.ie, to gifting Chelsea-mad Shane Farrell with one of Frank Lampard’s old jerseys from their time as teammates together at Stamford Bridge.
“Farreller was buzzing with that, it was a nice touch. He was the one who told us. The manager didn’t make a big show of it. I think he was just doing something nice.
“The manager says it to us all the time that he is here for us whatever we need, that he will look out for us and will treat us like one of his family,” Coyle says, now sitting on one of the white benches in the park a few feet from The Hole in the Wall.
“He had that mindset of pure grit and determination to make it as a player, that’s something lots of lads in this country don’t have. I was one of them.
“Now we have to buy into it or you won’t stay at Shelbourne. If you can’t stick the demands, there is no point. I enjoy it. Yeah, there’s a different pressure but who wouldn’t want this life?
“It feels like we’re all in this together and that makes it more special. It’s like this feeling makes your life worthwhile, that you have a purpose.”
Coyle should know, having very nearly turned his back on the League of Ireland long before he made the decision to leave Finn Harps and give up his full-time job as a medical scientist at Letterkenny Hospital in order to take Duff’s call a year ago.
In fact, the 25-year-old has had ample opportunities to be anywhere else but here, now speaking to The42 in near pitch darkness after 30 minutes of conversation.
The misplaced anger of his childhood in Burt, Co. Donegal, almost led him down a destructive path before the intervention of his mother Jackie and father Pius helped to get him back on course.
He turned to psychology, too, in order to help and, a bit later in life, books like ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck’ helped soften some of the edge further.
“I would have been very angry at times when I was younger, I had a quick switch and would get annoyed at silly things. Boys teasing me in school, I was always inclined to lash back rather than just ignore it.
“I would get frustrated with myself a lot growing up, I would put so much pressure on myself and that came out on the pitch, it would manifest itself in other ways.
“My parents spoke to me, as I got older I listened more and through practice that [anger] changed. I’ve tried to learn that it’s OK not always being able to control things.”
Part of the reason for putting added pressure on himself growing up was a trial with Aston Villa at the age of 13, after which a slow, steady frustration with the game gnawed at him.
Coyle packed it in during his late teens and focused on GAA, playing for Donegal minors, U21s and then spending a year with the senior team during Rory Gallagher’s tenure in charge.
“Would you say it’s an Irish thing? Thinking less of ourselves than we should?” he asks rhetorically, as the conversation continues with occasional flashes of light from passing cars, bikes and the most dedicated of winter joggers.
Some leftover bangers and fireworks from Halloween also pierce the softness as he speaks, but Coyle’s focus remains.
“I would have always thought I was not good enough. So, while I was putting this pressure on myself, I still doubted myself in my own head.
“After Villa you think that’s what is expected of you now, to become a footballer. But I started to hate football then just because of the pressure that I would put on myself. It wasn’t coming from anywhere else.
“And it’s funny but when I look back now, I wasn’t putting in nearly half of the work that would be needed to make any kind of career. That’s why the year with Donegal seniors opened my eyes, that level of intensity and work was a shock to the system. That was a wake-up call.”
An altogether different life also appealed when Coyle finished college (on a GAA scholarship) in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and had his degree in medical science in his back pocket. Emigration was tempting, and his own girlfriend would later leave the county after getting a job as a teacher in Dublin prior to him signing for Shels.
“Everyone from Donegal probably knows someone out in Australia, I have a cousin and friends out there. The communities of people that are out there are dotted all over.
“Even after my first season with Harps [in 2014] I went out to Boston during the [mid-season] break cause people from college were out there on the J1.
“I was close to just staying out there then and not coming home, but the guilt got the better of me. At the time I wasn’t taking football seriously enough and didn’t think there was much to lose.”
Ollie Horgan at Harps was a pivotal figure in keeping him on track in the League of Ireland, Coyle’s parents too, and it will be Jackie and Pius, as well as his younger siblings Maria and Darragh who will be in his thoughts as he prepares for action today.
So too his childhood friend Georgie Kelly, the former school pals whose bond was tightened by football. The former Bohemians striker was on the losing side against St Patrick’s Athletic at Aviva Stadium last year but has since moved on to Rotherham United, scoring on the final day of League One to help them earn promotion.
“It’s mad to see someone from Burt scoring goals in the Championship, but it’s a reminder of what can be achieved,” Coyle continues.
“The mindset we all have to have, every single player, is to enjoy this occasion. If we are on edge or too worried about what might happen, what could go wrong, we will struggle.
“We have to embrace the occasion. It’s a day we have to enjoy.”