Colin Doyle

Colin Anthony Doyle (born 12 June 1985) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Bradford City, where he is also goalkeeping coach.

He has four appearances for the Republic of Ireland national team.

Doyle spent twelve years as a professional with Birmingham City.

He joined Birmingham City as an academy scholar during 2001, before signing his first professional contract in 2003.

He made his first senior appearance for the club during the 4–0 victory over the Malaysian national team during the first Premier League Asia Trophy on 26 July 2003, replacing Ian Bennett with 13 minutes of the match remaining.

Having not yet made a professional appearance for Birmingham, Doyle joined League Two club Chester City on loan in October 2004.

Chester's first-choice goalkeeper Wayne Brown was injured and they needed cover for reserve Chris Mackenzie.

While at Chester, Doyle played his first match in English senior football as Chester defeated Rochdale in the Football League Trophy.

After returning to Birmingham, Doyle soon linked up with Championship club Nottingham Forest on a short-term loan in December 2004.

The loan was then extended to keep him at the City Ground for the rest of the season.

He made his debut in the Football League in April 2005 while on loan to Championship club Nottingham Forest, and also had loan spells at Chester City, Millwall and Coventry City.

Doyle made his first-team debut for Forest in a fifth-round FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur on 20 February 2005.

As the match approached half-time, Doyle gifted Tottenham the lead as a Jermain Defoe free kick bounced out of his hands and into the net, but Forest were able to equalise in the second half to take the tie to a replay.

Even though Doyle only played in a further three league matches for Forest, he said he was glad to be able to play regular reserve-team football and the loan spell had exceeded his expectations.

He was rumoured to be returning to Forest on loan for the following season, a move which did not occur.

Doyle's next loan move saw him join Millwall in November 2005 for a month.

He went straight into the team for their match against Leeds United on 26 November.

With the match goalless going into injury time, Millwall defender Ben May put the ball past Doyle for an own goal to give Leeds a 1–0 victory.

Doyle was recalled from loan on 19 December to cover for the suspended Nico Vaesen.

Doyle was on the bench for Birmingham's League Cup quarter-final against Manchester United the next day, and then returned to Millwall three days later on an emergency seven-day loan.

A week later, Doyle agreed to go to Millwall for a third loan spell in the 2005–06 season, this time staying with the Lions until the end of the season.

In total, Doyle played 14 matches for Millwall during his three loan spells, keeping two clean sheets.

During his loan spell at Millwall, Doyle had suggested he might want to stay with the club on a permanent basis, despite the offer of a new contract from his parent club.

However, at the end of the season he signed a two-year deal with Birmingham.

Because Vaesen's contract had expired, there was an expectation that Doyle would step up to second-choice goalkeeper behind Maik Taylor.

This loan deal was extended for another seven days before Doyle returned to Birmingham on 5 January 2006 after manager Steve Bruce had refused Millwall permission to use him in the FA Cup.

Doyle played his first competitive match for Birmingham in their League Cup first-round match against Shrewsbury Town on 22 August 2006, in which he kept a clean sheet as his club won 1–0.

With Taylor injured, Doyle made his first league appearance for Birmingham four days later in a 2–0 defeat away to Cardiff City.

Doyle played in the second and third rounds of the League Cup, against Wrexham and Sheffield United, before losing his place in the cup team to Taylor for the quarter-final defeat to Liverpool.

He made his full international debut in May 2007 against Ecuador.

Doyle was born in Cork, County Cork, and attended Douglas Community School.

He played both Gaelic football and hurling with Douglas GAA, before taking up association football with Douglas Hall.

Doyle was preferred to Taylor for the visit to Colchester United in February 2007; according to the Birmingham Mail, "Doyle was unruffled and did himself a lot of good. His handling was sound, he got the game moving quickly and even though some of his kicks were skewed wide, he whacked the ball long and hard."

Assistant manager Eric Black said that Doyle had "shown that he's more than capable and he's ready to have a go now and challenge Maik Taylor" for the starting position.

He kept his place in the team for the remainder of the season as Birmingham were promoted back to the Premier League.

At the club's end of season awards, Doyle picked up both the "Breakthrough Award" and the award for "Magic Moment of the Season", for his penalty save from Wolverhampton Wanderers' Michael McIndoe at Molineux that gained Birmingham a crucial three points.

Doyle finished the season with eight clean sheets from 22 appearances.

He moved on to Blackpool ahead of the 2015–16 season, and a year later began a two-year spell with Bradford City.

Doyle joined Heart of Midlothian in 2018, and spent time on loan at Kilmarnock in the 2020–21 season, after which he returned to the club as player-coach.

At international level, Doyle has represented the Republic of Ireland at under-21, B and senior levels.