Lyng: Playing for Wexford as exciting as playing for Ireland

WHEN Ciarán Lyng turned his back on Gaelic games at the age of 16 in pursuit of a career in English soccer, he could hardly have anticipated his first opportunity of playing in a world-class stadium in front of a capacity crowd would be in a Leinster football final.

But, like so many youngsters who would have harboured dreams of emulating the likes of Roy Keane and quickly had their hopes dashed, he returned home to Wexford.

But, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, not even the ‘drudgery’ of cleaning boots in his first year after joining Preston North End. Having first gained representation when he played soccer with Wexford Celtic, he represented Ireland in almost 30 games at various grades up to U20.