Noel Bailie MBE article in Sunday Life
Posted : 17th May 2018
The following excellent article by the leading local sports journalist Alex Mills was featured in a recent issue of Sunday Life and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the writer and the newspaper.
Irish League Lives
Noel Bailie MBE
It was highly appropriate for the King of Windsor to mingle with Royalty at Buckingham Palace!
Having been awarded the MBE for his services to football in the 2013 Queen’s Birthday Honours’ list, it was the Monarch herself who bestowed the honour when Noel Bailie stepped forward on the famous red carpet.
The term legend is used sometimes flippantly, perhaps as a figure of speech. But it rests easily on the shoulders of a guy that wrote his own chapter in the history of Linfield Football Club.
In recognition of two decades of golden memories, Noel’s famous and beloved number 11 shirt was ‘retired’ after the May 2011 Irish Cup final win over Crusaders – a fitting tribute.
As club captain, Noel mounted the podium to pick up his final trophy.
After 1,013 games; 10 Irish League title wins; eight Irish Cup successes; six League Cup victories; a cherished Setanta Cup triumph . . . and numerous other medals – 37 in total – this unique one-club man quite rightly has earned his place among Windsor Park greats.
He was 40 years of age when he brought down the curtain on a fabulous career, but his knowledge and expertise is still being utilised as he remains at the club in a scouting capacity.
However, Noel admits it wasn’t all backslaps and high-fives . . . although the good times far out-weigh the bad. Linfield fans can be a fickle lot. It takes a special breed to win them over, but Noel is still worshipped by the ‘faithful’.
Even when we met for an afternoon coffee, he was nabbed by a couple of Linfield diehards in his home City of Lisburn, wanting to know what is wrong at Linfield? That’s the affect he still has on people.
“I wouldn’t know where to start to pick out a highlight,” he smiles. “The first title win at Coleraine sticks out . . . beating Glentoran to achieve the ‘clean sweep’ and the Setenta Cup win over Shelbourne will never be forgotten. I used to have a DVD of the game, but it has been played so often it sticks after about 15 minutes, so I can’t watch it any more. Thankfully, most of it is still in my head.”
Having arrived at Windsor as a 15-year-old, he made his first team debut within two years – it was against Ballymena United. But the club was very much in transition and, after a series of poor results, Roy Coyle made his exit in 1990. Noel went on: “The fans revolted. I was new to the first team and suddenly there was in turmoil.
“Eric Bowyer was installed. It was a tough time for him. He had his own way of doing things, but our league position wasn’t good enough. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for him.”
When Trevor Anderson was appointed, he changed the Windsor landscape. One of his first decisions was to turn Noel from midfielder to defender.
“Trevor told me he was going to play me in the centre of defence – a position I held on to until I hung up the boots” adds Noel. “He brought in Gary Peebles, Pat Fenlon and Dessie Gorman, Alan Ewing and then Gary Haylock. He turned it around which ultimately heralded a title win.”
At the start of the following season, Noel was ‘honoured’ to be handed the captain’s armband.
“Trevor hadn’t mentioned it to me,” he added. “Alan Dornan was skipper, with Doc (Lee Doherty) the vice-captain. We were preparing for a game at Windsor. It was a little bit embarrassing because Trevor shouted to me, ‘Noel lead the boys out’.
“It was totally out of the blue, so I’ll always be grateful to Trevor for that.”
Another masterstroke by Anderson was to appoint David Jeffrey as his number two in April 1996. Within nine months the irrepressible DJ, moved into the hot-seat. They didn’t know it then, but it was beginning of the most successful era in the history of the famous club.
No one could have predicted what was about to happen. Of course, the success bandwagon didn’t begin rolling immediately.
“We had a couple of barren years . . . the big man had to rebuild,” adds Noel. “I’ll never forget the day we won the league title down at Coleraine – the scenes were amazing.
“The Coleraine people were great. They told us to stay on as long as we wanted. They had a big communal bath. We all piled in, backroom staff and all. We sat for ages, drinking beer and signing our hearts out. It was fantastic.
“In David’s 17-odd years, he had to rebuild three or four times. He had to make some huge decisions. But most of them, with the Board’s backing, proved to be absolutely right.
“There were some big calls, not only in terms of signing players, but also off-loading. It was difficult to tell guys, who had been there for nine or 10 years, that their time was up.
That’s one of the reasons I’ll never be a manager. I would never want to go through that.”
Noel can also recall some big nights on foreign soil. One in particular stands out. He adds: “We were drawn against Dinamo Tbilisi and there were 55,000 partizan fans at the game.
“I watched the Liverpool fans give Manchester City a rough time on the way to Anfield for their Champions League quarter final game recently when the coach was attacked.
“We experienced something similar, except the fans were not throwing bottles, but there were thousands of Tbilisi fans surrounding the bus for about a half of a mile leading to the stadium. It was scary.
“They were making the most incredible noise. When the game started, we scored and the noise levels just disappeared . . . there was an eerie silence except for our celebration. It went from one extreme to the other.
“Although they beat us 2-1, Wes Lamont had one of those wonder games – he had a blinder. They beat us at Windsor. Amazingly, they were thrown out for match fixing.
“They tried to bribe the referee, for whatever reason. I don’t when it happened, whether it was before or after the game . . . perhaps they panicked after only winning the home leg 2-1?”
Linfield progressed to the next round and were involved in another never-to-be-forgotten two-legged affair against FC Copenhagen.
“We beat them 3-0 at Windsor and destroyed them,” he adds. “But they hit us with everything over there and were leading 2-0 after about 10 minutes. However, the game was approaching the 96th minute when they were awarded a free kick. It was one of those you dream about. Top corner. Big Wes had no chance.
“We were dead on our feet. They scored the fourth goal in extra-time and tortured us. We just couldn’t get hold of the ball. To make matters worse, I was rooming with John Easton and he lost his wallet after the game -- a disaster all round.”
After over two decades (in the first team), it was fitting that Noel went out on his own terms.
“It was no big surprise,” he countered. “My calf muscles began giving me grief. Sometimes I couldn’t even train. I was hitting 40. I asked for a meeting with Davy, Bryan McLoughlin and Alfie Wylie. I told them, my time was up and I intended to retire at the end of the season. There were a lot of hugs and kisses. You know what big Davy is like.”
And, on his day out with the Royal family, Noel concluded: “It was lovely . . . I brought my son, daughter and my dad. My mum had passed away not long before it, but she knew about it, which was a bit sad. Buckingham Palace is a fantastic place and I was privileged because it was the Queen who carried out the ceremony.”
Did you know?
Noel joined the Blues as a 15-year-old after leaving Hillsborough Boys, managed by former sports journalist Brian Ogle. On his debut for Linfield Rangers, under the managerial watch of Jim Thompson, Noel scored in a 3-2 win.
Roy Coyle handed Noel his first team debut against Ballymena United at the Showgrounds in a County Antrim Shield tie on March 30, 1989.
Noel celebrated his 1,000th game in a blue shirt in a scoreless draw against Crusaders at Seaview on April 24, 2010 – an achievement that earned him a guard of honour from both teams. He made his final appearance in a blue shirt against Portadown on April 30, 2011.
He was named the Northern Ireland Football Writers’ Association’s Player of the year in 1994. In the same year, he picked up the Ulster Footballer of the Year trophy.
Noel’s representative honours include: one Northern Ireland Under-23 cap (1990); two Under-21 international appearances and two Irish League caps.