Carson flicks power switch

SHANE LOWRY wasn’t the only amateur sportsman to emerge from the shadows and win big on Sunday.

Ryan Carson’s story was just as uplifting as the Offaly golfer’s and, in some ways, even more unlikely.

Carson was the toast of Fermanagh at the weekend after scoring six points on his championship debut against Down. Twelve hours later he was flying back to Luton and his day job as an electricity power linesman.

It is hardly the ideal situation for the Newtownbutler forward but his exile in England highlights the difficulties players and managers are experiencing in dedicating themselves to football and hurling due to the recession.

“It is not what you would want and we have been trying all year to get work for him here, but that’s not easy done,” revealed Fermanagh boss Malachy O’Rourke.

“The landscape has changed a bit with regards the job front and so on, but we’d like to have him back.

“It’s hard to get him fully integrated into the panel because he is missing a lot of the work with the lads. Ryan is a great fella and he’s a laid back lad. Once he is here he enjoys the craic with the rest of the fellas.”

Carson has been commuting to England for nearly 18 months and has been training with a GAA team in Luton while hopping back and forth since January for the county’s various fixtures.

He isn’t the first GAA player to balance commitments abroad with playing duties at home. Offaly’s Ciaran McManus spent a spell in Germany and Finland while Trevor Mortimer was studying in Leeds while playing with Mayo. Tony Griffin had it even harder when studying in Canada but the Clare hurler still managed to turn out for his county come summer despite the temporary transatlantic separation.

Carson’s elevation into the spotlight has been some time coming. Aged 26, it is ten years since he first came to attention with the county minors but all efforts at persuading him to line out for the seniors were rebuffed until O’Rourke finally succeeded where his predecessors had failed. O’Rourke’s persistence has been worthwhile. Impressive displays in the Dr McKenna Cup and National League were aperitifs to his display Sunday, one which served up five frees and one point from play from full-forward.

At 6’ 2” and 14st, he is the polar opposite to the archetypal Fermanagh forward of recent vintage and he made life uncomfortable for the Down defenders with his bulk as well as his fielding and handling skills.

“It was a thing we were keen to explore, same as last year,” said O’Rourke “We felt we have a lot of forwards who are the same, strong running forwards who are nippy.

“We wanted a focal point out there so if there were people pressurised out the field and the ball had to go in longer there was someone there who could win it. Ryan definitely did that. He did add to the thing big time and his free taking was great as well.

“His overall general play too, he won a couple of crucial balls at the end. I was so delighted for him. It definitely worked well.”

None of the five points Carson converted from frees could be placed in the ‘difficult’ category but Fermanagh missed a clutch of seemingly simple dead balls at times in last summer’s campaign which makes Carson’s emergence all the more important. Named as man of the match for his contribution at Brewster Park, Carson downplayed his own performance but he did open up when the focus turned to Fermanagh as a collective.

“It was brilliant because everyone was writing us off. Down were coming down (to Enniskillen) and people were saying they were just coming for the day out and were just going to beat us so it was brilliant to overturn them. I knew the team spirit in our team. We needed to lift it and we lifted it when it was most needed and prevailed. It’s the same every year. We like coming is as the underdog, a bit of the pressure is off us. Now everyone knows what we can do so onwards and upwards.”