Fathers and Sons: a theme of this year’s EFL Play-Off Finals
Matt Watts writes on play-offs, fathers and the people who first shared the game with us.
The music was on. The medals had been collected. The trophy had been lifted. The champagne had been sprayed. In amongst the jubilant scene of a victorious dressing room, Hull captain Lewie Coyle, a boyhood Tigers fan who joined his hometown club from Leeds in 2020, paused his celebrations.
“It’s important that we enjoy this moment. I spoke about it before the game in the huddle with the lads, and I said, ‘I’ve said it so many times, I think today was all about your why,’ and my why is well documented… My why’s my old man.”
Coyle’s father, Chris, passed away in 2022. Coyle Snr was a familiar figure to the people of Hull. Not only did he have four sons who were or still are professional sportsmen, but he also owned a fruit stall in the city.
After leading Hull to promotion and a return to the Premier League after a nine-year absence, Lewie spoke of the guilt that he still feels following his father’s tragic passing.
“I’ve struggled with that for a long time. You lads give me a reason to come into work, give me a reason to focus, and you all give me a reason to ensure I could do this to pay back my old man. This is the closest thing I’ll ever get to paying back my old man. I’m saying thank you for what he did for me and my brothers, and I’m sorry for what happened on that night. You boys helped me achieve my dream, and I couldn’t have done it without you.”
A couple of days later, lifelong Notts County fan James Belshaw was in goal for the Magpies as they beat Salford 3-0 in the League Two Play-Off Final. The 35-year-old, who was a mascot for Notts when he was six, described the experience as a ‘dream come true.’
Belshaw was released by Notts in 2006, aged 15, when the club closed its centre of excellence as part of cost-cutting measures. A few years later, he went to Duke University in the US, before returning to the UK and making his way up through non-league.
Belshaw’s big break in the EFL actually came at the expense of his beloved Notts: he was in goal for the Harrogate side who beat the ‘Pies 3-1 in the 2020 National League Play-Off Final. However, more than 20 years after being forced to leave his club, the shot-stopper returned in January. Belshaw’s Dad, Paul, has been watching matches at Meadow Lane for over 60 years. He sits in the Kop behind the goal that his son now protects.
While we can’t all win promotion at Wembley, it struck me that, for many of us, a father is our why – they’re why we fell in love with football and they’re why we support the clubs we do.
When I was six, my Dad took me to Selhurst Park for the first time. Since then, we have been to hundreds of games together, including last year’s FA Cup Final and Wednesday night’s Conference League Final. His Dad – my grandad, Colin – introduced him to Palace in the late 1960s. Thirty years later, my Dad repeated the trick.
My son, Logan, is only 11 months old but he has already been papped in a Palace shirt, and he’s seen the FA Cup more than he has seen some of his more distant relatives. He even starred in a TNT Sport montage aired prior to the Community Shield. It remains to be seen whether or not Logan will continue the Watts family tradition by attending his first game before the decade is out, but the seeds are already being sewn.
Of course, this mythical figure who introduces you to football and decides which club your mood is bound to until the end of your days doesn’t have to be your father. It could be your mother, your uncle, your brother, your sister or anyone. Or maybe nobody. We should also acknowledge that some people never had this figure; they fell in love with football because of a TV show, a video game, a sticker book or that kid in the playground who could do an ‘Around the World’. Nevertheless, in time, they will likely become that influential figure to their children, and thus the cycle continues.
“It’s tough. There is just one man I want to celebrate with,” Coyle told Sky Sports. “He’s not with us, but I look up to the sky every game and I had a little look up today. I know he’s with me, for sure.”
A collective resolution, then, for those of us lucky enough to still share these moments, on the pitch or in the stands, with our fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and friends: to appreciate not just the football itself, but the people and shared history that comes with it.