Coyle - Rioch benched me!

by jayjay23 Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:14 am

"I’d be out warming up and the Bolton fans would be singing for me. I remember coming back in to the dugout and just out of the corner of his mouth Bruce said: ‘Warm up as long as you want, the more they sing for you the less chance you’ve got of getting on’."

“At which point I just had to sit on my backside and make sure I wasn’t warming up because then I had a chance of getting on the pitch had a difference of opinion but when I look back now I can see where he was coming from. He probably felt I was maybe too quick with a line here or there.”

Coyle was axed from the League Cup Final squad for the clash with Liverpool in 1995. He said: “When I think back to the League Cup, I played in every round up to the fi nal and I was the one that was left out. It used to be a 14-man squad at the time."

“Bruce named the starting 11 on the Monday and then he left Colin Todd to name the subs on the Friday because he was meeting up with us in Luton. I felt for what I’d done in playing every game, if he was going to leave me out, fair enough, that’s his decision as a manager."

“But I felt that he should be the one to tell me instead of leaving Colin Todd to name the subs. When it happened, I thought for a split second, ‘I’m not going. I’m just going home’. But I never did. “I put a smile on my face and put my suit on and was there for the rest of my boys."

“I just felt my team-mates didn’t pick the team so why cause them any distractions. “As hurtful as it was I smiled and did my best to get the boys geed up for the cup fi nal. We lost 2-1 but I was there for them. I worked my way back into the team and ultimately scored in the play-off final at Wembley that season."

“When I look back, in terms of mental strength, if I’d have felt sorry for myself at that time and walked away, I would never have experienced the highs that I did with the club.”

I dont really remember any of that going on, although i was a little surprised when he was left ut of the liverpool game. i think bergsson came in for his first game for us as sub is that right? noone had heard of him and he came on and did really well?