Noel Synnott (born 14 December 1951) is an Irish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and manager. He was a defender who played for

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

and played three times for the

Republic of Ireland national football team , FIFA Trigramme = IRL , Name = Republic of Ireland , Association = Football Association of Ireland (FAI) , Confederation = UEFA (Europe) , website fai.ie, Coach = Stephen Kenny (foot ...

in 1978. He began in the League of Ireland in 1973 playing for

Sligo Rovers Sligo Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí Shligigh) is an Irish professional football club playing in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. The club is based in Sligo in the west of Ireland. The club was founded in 1928 ...

. He joined Shamrock Rovers the following year firstly playing under Mick Meagan, then Sean Thomas and Johnny Giles. He played for nine years at Milltown, making four appearances in European competition and a

League of Ireland XI The League of Ireland XI, more recently referred to as the ''Airtricity League XI'' for sponsorship reasons, is the representative team of the League of Ireland, the national association football league of the Republic of Ireland. For much of it ...

cap, plus 3 appearances against Liverpool F.C. and also against Southampton and for Waterford against Arsenal, he also played for the League of Ireland against Argentina in April 1978, in the Boca Juniors stadium in Buenos Aires, just before Argentina won the World Cup in June of that year. On 27 March 1983, he was the victim of a crude tackle from Mick Fairclough of Dundalk, which resulted in a broken leg. Doctors told him he would never play again so a testimonial was held for him at Glenmalure Park on 21 September 1983. However, two years later, he made a comeback for Waterford United where he scored an own goal in the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

Final in 1986 against Rovers. As Rovers had won the League again, this final appearance had qualified the Blues for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup where Noel scored against

FC Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux ( oc, Girondins de Bordèu) or simply Bordeaux, is a French professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde (de ...

in September 1986, and went on to finish as top goalscorer for Waterford United that season in European competition. In August 1988, Synnott once again appeared for ''The Hoops'' in a Leinster Senior Cup tie. After his playing career ended, he served as manager of

Kilkenny City F.C. Kilkenny City Association Football Club was an Irish football club. The club played in the First Division of the League of Ireland until 18 January 2008 when they announced that they resigned their position in the league citing "lack of financ ...

for the 1991–92 season and Shamrock Rovers for a brief period in 2004. He now works as a taxi driver specialising in driving members of the popular Leeds United forum WACCOE.com to their desired destination. Noel has gone on to star in a number of television advertisements.

Honours

– 1978 * League of Ireland Cup **

– 1976/77 *

Leinster Senior Cup (football) The Leinster Senior Cup is an association football cup competition organized by the Leinster Football Association. It is currently contested by LFA affiliated League of Ireland clubs, Leinster Senior League Senior Division clubs and invited te ...

– 1982

Sources

* ''The Hoops'' by Paul Doolan and Robert Goggins ()

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Synnott, Noel 1951 births Living people Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Men's association football defenders League of Ireland players Sligo Rovers F.C. players Shamrock Rovers F.C. players Waterford F.C. players Shamrock Rovers F.C. managers Republic of Ireland association football managers League of Ireland managers League of Ireland XI players British taxi drivers Association footballers from Dublin (city)