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.

“It took me all over Europe,” he recalled. “I would even struggle to name all the places I went to, but we were in Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy and Spain. I was under Brian Kerr for about a year and a half, but then he got promotion.”

His involvement — at corner-forward — in Sunday’s decider against champions Dublin came about after former manager Paul Bealin was impressed by his display in the 2006 county intermediate final for St Martin’s. He quickly won his place on the team, playing in last year’s championship, and continued to shine under new boss Jason Ryan.

Lyng has an interesting story to tell about his three years in England, which serves as a salutary lesson for both parents and starry-eyed teenagers. His time with Preston was marked by manager changes (David Moyes was there in his first month, before moving to Everton) which didn’t help, but Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s son Brian helped him to settle.

“It was a lot different to over here because minors mix freely with the seniors” he explained. “But over there when you are a young lad it’s a completely different relationship with the pros. But, Brian was very good to the younger pros and we all went to Mass together on Sunday. It was good having Irish faces there.

“There was a lot of drudgery in my first season, but when I turned 17 and signed a professional contract I didn’t have to do that. For your first year it was all about cleaning boots, but you get used to it and you get your ‘tip’ at Christmas. It’s more about building a relationship with the pros. It’s not slavery or anything, it is basically about getting involved in the club.”

After going on loan to Shrewsbury and then signing for them, he quickly became disillusioned with pro football. “I was there for two-and-a- half years and I was still playing for the reserves. I wasn’t getting a look in.”

Though he had a year to run on his contract and the offer of trials, he packed up and headed for home.

It was a ‘low point’ he agreed, feeling that he had erred initially in moving from Preston when he had time left in his contract.

“I was young and it was a bad decision on my part, but I don’t have any regrets now,” he commented.

Right now he is pursuing an Arts course in UCD, having studied for his Leaving Certificate after coming home end enjoying life in the fast lane with the senior footballers.

Even with the financial rewards of the soccer game, he says that the satisfaction of representing his county at this level is ‘as exciting’, even comparable to playing for Ireland. “I had no identity at Preston. Playing for UCD you want to win all your games but you are not playing for your parish or your town.”

Interestingly, he spent a few months with the Wexford hurlers last year (his brother Diarmuid is a current member of the team), but he quickly realised that it wouldn’t be viable to commit himself to the two teams. The advice he got from Redmond Barry (the most recent of Wexford’s dual players, now the regular centre-forward on the football team) was that playing 12 or 13 weekends in a row with the county and then turning to the club ‘would burn him out’.

However, during his time in England he would have opted to play in a Leinster hurling final if he had the opportunity, or the choice between the two. But coming home he found it easier to adapt to the bigger ball!

“Hurling is harder to pick up after being away from it for three years. I had my hurl over there, but what would I be doing with it — only knocking a ball off the wall the odd day...”