Striker finds hope at home with City

IT could easily have been a miserable return to his roots for George O’Callaghan.

After seven years learning his trade in England, a promising career at Port Vale had reached a dead-end and the 23-year-old could easily have sneaked home to Cork with his tail between his legs to be perceived as yet another might-have-been.

Instead, O’Callaghan has come out fighting at hometown club City, finding new hope in a profession littered with cases of unfulfilled potential, and showing his former employees that, given the right treatment, they could have got an awful lot more out of their Irish import than they managed.

“Coming home has been brilliant really,” O’Callaghan said. “I thought to myself, going to the first few training sessions, ‘this is my last chance now in football and I have to take it’. So I go out now and give it everything I have. I work hard and I train hard and I learned a lot over at Port Vale. I’ve also learned a lot from my mistakes there and hopefully I can pass on those experiences to the other lads and gain more myself by being here.”

Just 10 games into his Irish domestic career, O’Callaghan has exorcised the bad memories of his final years at Vale to help a new look City side get off to their best start in years, playing in an unfamiliar striking role to boot. Saturday night’s equaliser at Ballybofey underlined how crucial he has been to the cause, earning them another shot at a place in the FAI Carlsberg Cup semi-finals with tonight’s replay against Finn Harps at Turners Cross.

He was brought to Leeside as a midfielder by manager Liam Murphy during the short close season. But injury to last season’s first choice striker James Mulligan and the retirement of goal-scoring legend Pat Morley required Murphy throwing the wiry 6ft 1in midfielder into an unlikely scratch partnership with another returnee, Cobh-born, Peterborough United discard, John O’Flynn.

The gamble paid off instantly as the pair combined brilliantly on the opening night of the season to tear apart champions Shelbourne, sharing all three goals on a heady evening at Turner’s Cross last month. And while 19-year-old O’Flynn has grabbed the headlines with 10 goals in City’s eight league and cup matches so far , O’Callaghan’s dazzling footwork, creativity and work rate have played just as telling a contribution.

“I’m not an out-and-out goalscorer, I’m more of a creator and I do work hard. It’s brilliant that John’s there to finish them. He’s clinical and he’s fantastic to play with. I suppose people sometimes don’t see the runs I make, dropping into midfield and opening it up for other lads, but it’s just great to be part of a winning team.”

Which was far from being the case at Port Vale where things went badly wrong for him in his final two seasons at the midlands’ club.

“I had a great time when John Rudge was the manager and I was flying then. Brian Horton came (in 1999) and I’m kind of a confident lad and probably a bit cocky and I don’t think he liked me because of that.

I never got to express myself and I think I needed a manager like John Rudge and Murph is very similar to him. I’m able to express myself now and I suppose Port Vale fans never saw the best of me really. It’s disappointing.

“The change of scenery has helped, being home, with your own people. There’s a lot more pressure playing in front of your dad and your mam and you’re saying to yourself, ‘I’m not going home tonight if I don’t play well’. So I’m delighted. Cork have been great and I would not have gone to any other club but City. It’s been a dream start and I just hope it keeps going.

“I’ve kind of cut myself off from Vale. Near the end I just had so many bad memories of the place, in training and in matches, and I just felt the need to start from fresh again. But I looked at the club website the other day and I see they haven’t had the best of starts, which is a shame.”

While Vale have struggled, O’Callaghan has flourished at City, finding the net four times already this season.

It certainly had the boss purring and all Murphy has to worry about now is how long it will take for an English club to take notice of his exciting strike force.

“I’m delighted for George,” Murphy said. “He’s a very talented footballer, he has excellent touch and the goal against Bray was one of the best I’ve ever seen at Turner’s Cross. It was technically a very good goal and if you look at his career George has always got goals. His ratio of goals to appearances is very good. He’s a young lad and he’s good enough to go back over. It’s all in his own hands. Their loss is our gain, as far as I’m concerned.

“But don’t forget, the two boys are committed to the club. They are two very good lads, they work very hard on the training ground and they’ve started something here now and they want to finish it.”