The Second Half by Roy Keane & Roddy Doyle

Author:Roy Keane & Roddy Doyle [Keane, Roy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2014-10-08T23:00:00+00:00

Mick McCarthy was managing Wolves and he rang me about a player; I think it was Neill Collins, who he wanted to take on loan.

He rang me direct, straight through to my office.

‘All right, Roy?’

We chatted about the player, and about this and that. It wasn’t an awkward conversation, and I was glad he’d rung me. It had crossed my mind that we’d be meeting during the course of the season. Our teams would be playing against each other, and I was a member of the LMA now, too – the League Managers’ Association; there’d be functions I’d have to go to. We were bound to meet.

I think it was Mick who suggested that we meet up for a chat; we both thought it was a good idea.

We met at the Four Seasons Hotel, near Manchester Airport, and it was a bit like the meeting with Niall, a nice anticlimax. I said I was sorry about what had happened in Saipan. I’m not sure I had anything to apologise for. But you try to move on.

But that was that. It was important, and I’m glad it happened.

We were playing Wolves, away, in November, on a Friday night. The media were all over it, and the game was live on Sky. The build-up to the game was all ‘Are they going to shake hands?’ But we’d already met and we’d kept that to ourselves. So it was no big drama for us. We shook hands before the game, but it wasn’t prearranged. We just shook hands. Managers do it before every game. It’s standard practice. The only difference this time was that there were fifty cameramen around us.

But that was another night I lost my rag. We were 1–0 down at half-time; we were shocking. I told Cookie to get the tactics board out, and I did a bit of a Bruce Lee on it. I think the players were distracted by the whole Keane–McCarthy stuff. And I have to ask myself the question, was I extra angry because I didn’t want to lose to Mick McCarthy’s team? I’d hope not. But we were on TV and we were shit. Poor Cookie had to spend ages looking for all the little players off the tactics board.

We drew 1–1 but we were lucky. Our keeper, Darren Ward, kept us in the game, and our goal, a shot by Stevie Elliott, was deflected.

We beat QPR, 2–1, away, then Norwich, the return fixture, at home. We beat them 1–0. Daryl Murphy scored in both games.

Our next game, the following Saturday, was at home to Luton. I was called to a meeting at the club on Friday night. Niall and the club secretary were there. Three of the players, Chris Brown, Liam Lawrence and Ben Alnwick, had allegedly been caught on video making out with a girl. The club hierarchy was panicking about it because the story was going to appear in the Sun. The two lads who were important to me were Brown and Lawrence, because we’d a game the next day and they were both in my team.

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