ONE-ON-ONE WITH...
ANDY BOYLE Andy Boyle was a raw 21-year-old when Stephen Kenny signed him from Shelbourne ahead of the 2013 campaign. Seven years on, with four league titles, a spell in the UK and a Republic of Ireland cap to his name, the Lilywhites centre-back sat down with Dundalk FC Magazine’s Gavin McLaughlin to talk squad rotation, his return to peak fitness and the season ahead.
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oyle and Gartland? Gartland and Hoare? Cleary and Gartland? Hoare and Boyle? Cleary and Boyle? Cleary and Hoare? If you asked 100 Dundalk fans to pick their number one defensive partnership, you could easily get 100 different answers. For decades, it was stressed that a successful football team was built on a tried and trusted centre-back partnership but Dundalk’s 2019 campaign defied logic with Sean Hoare (28 league appearances), Daniel Cleary (23), Brian Gartland (22) and Andy Boyle (8) all rotated on a nearweekly basis. Disruption was minimal with Dundalk conceding just 18 goals in 36 matches. “We have real competition in that centre-back area and it’s hard to know who is the best,” said Vinny Perth last October. “We rotate because we don’t believe there is a ‘first-team’ in the squad. We weren’t able to do
it over the years and it’s not just a case of me being a tinker man. It’s because of the quality we have in the group.” Squad rotation is something of a new phenomenon for Boyle. The Dubliner was a key figure in the Dundalk side that won three league titles on the spin between 2014 and 2016 with his performances earning him a place on the PFAI Premier Division Team of the Year in each of those campaigns. Incredibly, Boyle missed just three league games in that spell and his partnership with Gartland will be remembered in these parts as one of the best of all time. In hindsight, it was no surprise that Dundalk struggled to readjust when he departed for Preston North End at the end of the European odyssey in 2016. Things were a little bit different when he returned from the UK last summer. Instead of slotting back in alongside his old partner, the 28-year-old found himself
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