OUR popular series continues as we ask Darren Henderson for his All-Time Coleraine XI from his own playing days at The Showgrounds…

The striker made a total of 217 appearances for the Stripes across three different spells, which yielded 74 goals in the process.

After making his way through the youth ranks, Henderson was handed his debut by Marty Quinn and never looked back.

His career in the game also yielded time at the likes of Glentoran, Dungannon Swifts, Ballymena United, Portadown, Institute and Ards.

The Bushmills man featured alongside many great names during his playing days on the Ballycastle Road and here is his all-time XI.

DARREN’S COLERAINE XI

GK: Davy O’Hare

An absolute legend around the club and when I started to play with him, then I saw first-hand how good he was. Davy was famous for taking the odd head stagger but what a great goalkeeper he was.

RB: Stewart Clanachan

Another legend! He was the only right-back I knew when I started to support the club – so it was an absolute pleasure to play alongside him. He helped me so much when I broke through and he was a quality player. He’s been the best right-back Coleraine have ever had during my time supporting the club.

CB: Kyle McVey

Big Kyle just broke into the first-team before me but it was no surprise as I thought he was really under-rated at youth level. He stood out like a sore thumb when he made the breakthrough and I always thought back then that he might have played a higher level. A fantastic person who had a great career in the Irish League.

CB: Paul Gaston

The only word to describe this man is a legend. I only played with ‘Gacky’ for a season but it was thoroughly enjoyable. I will always remember his last minute winner away to Loughgall when we were 2-0 down at half-time and Marty Quinn went mad. Everything that he did for the club has just edged out David Ogilby here.

LB: Johnny Watt

The biggest compliment you can pay ‘Tussy’ is that if you played him anywhere – he wouldn’t look out of place. Not only that, but he’d give you at least a 7/8 out of 10 every single game. He must have been a manager’s dream. A really good person as well.

RM: Stephen Dooley

Stephen went on to have a great career in the game over in England. I remember when I came back from Glentoran the first time and his development after making his debut was like night and day. It was mad how fast he was and he would always pop up with an important goal. We would have won the 2010 League Cup final had he stayed on the pitch.

CM: Tommy McCallion

Just a class act and another person who was brilliant with me. Tommy was a great professional and took training as serious as a matchday. He had some engine and wanted to do everybody else’s job. An unbelievable player and person.

CM: Stephen Lowry

Stephen probably didn’t play as much as he would’ve liked at the start – but you could tell that the quality was always there. To be fair, it all clicked when Oran came to the club and Stephen never looked back after that. He’s won everything there is to win in the local game and is still going strong.

LM: Stephen Carson

What can I say? He was the best player in the Irish League whenever I was involved. He had that ability of turning a game in a split-second. His quality saw us through at times when we were really struggling and I can’t speak highly enough of him. He was just on a different level. I’d say he probably set-up half of my goals during my time at Coleraine and Glentoran.

FW: Jody Tolan

When I was playing at youth level around 15 or 16-years-old, I always looked up to Jody. His hold up play was next level and he scored some important goals. He talked to you both on and off the pitch and was so helpful. A great professional and footballer – he was probably so unselfish as well.

FW: Leon Knight

He was just an unbelievable footballer and levels above the Irish League. I’ve never seen someone with such a good first touch and I remember just thinking “wow” after his first training session with us. He scored plenty of goals and we developed a good relationship off the pitch.

Notable mentions: Stephen Beatty, John Neill, David Ogilby, Aaron Canning, Michael Hegarty and Davy Patton (all good players and people who just narrowly missed out).