Standing on the sidelines as manager and peering across to find your dad in the opposition dugout doesn’t happen too often in football.
The most famous example is probably Darren Ferguson managing against his father Sir Alex in a pre-season friendly between Peterborough and Manchester United in August 2007.
Lee Johnson has also faced off a few times against his father Gary Johnson at various clubs.
Now it is the turn of Dean Shiels to go up against his father Kenny Shiels for the first time as Coleraine and Moyola Park meet in the North West Cup on Tuesday night.
The two have a history of linking up together in Dean’s playing days and his early foray into coaching.
Kenny was Dean’s manager for a brief loan spell at Scottish side Kilmarnock and also brought his son in as assistant coach during his time as Northern Ireland women’s manager.
Kenny has been at Premier Intermediate side Moyola Park since October and previously had a spell in charge of the Bannsiders during his long managerial career.
Dean, a former Coleraine player, has won one of his opening five Irish Premiership games since taking over at the Showgrounds in the summer.
Adding to the family intrigue is Oran Kearney, Coleraine’s sporting director, who is Dean’s brother-in-law and Kenny’s son-in-law.
The Shiels might want to take a leaf out of the Johnsons’ book and introduce their own trophy for the winner of the cup tie to ensure father-son bragging rights are properly honoured.
