Connor looks for change of fortune

IT’S a seasoned smile Dan Connor wears as he talks about his career. They say football can be a cruel game but the Waterford United keeper has experienced that cruel side more than most.

Such has been the path Connor has taken to tomorrow’s FAI Cup final at Lansdowne Road, lesser souls might have been looking for a different career. It’s a tribute to his persistence that he is 90 minutes away from a cup medal.

Connor is determined his footballing life isn’t condensed into another hard-luck tale of a young Irish lad going across the water only to see their dreams shattered. And his story, while familiar, is a little different.

Following a successful schoolboys career with St Joseph’s Boys, he was signed by Peterborough at 16, spurning offers from Newcastle and Blackburn because he felt more opportunity beckoned in the lower reaches. He was right. At 17, he made his full league debut and impressed Barry Fry enough to remain in goal for a few games.

Then disaster. In an FA Youth Cup quarter-final against Crewe, he did his cruciate. Eight months on the sidelines saw him fall down the pecking order. When he returned at 18, a couple of games later, the same leg buckled from under him in a fracture. Another season falls by the wayside.

“It was a nightmare couple of years”, Connor recalls. “The cruciate was bad enough, but to break the same leg in my second game back. It set me back a few years.”

A frustrating couple of seasons followed. The promise of his youth was wallowing on a bench in London Road. Waterford chairman Ger O’Brien offered him regular football. Fry, the Del Boy of lower league football, wasn’t too keen on letting the promising young keeper leave, but had little choice.

“Since I came back last season, I played 40 games, have been involved with the U21s and haven’t looked back. It took me a few years to reach the decision to leave Peterborough, but it was the right decision to make. Since coming back, I feel like my career has started all over again.”

While he certainly doesn’t want to be seen as preaching, Connor feels more footballers could benefit from trying to resurrect their career in the Eircom league rather than letting their footballing life slip by in England.

“There are hundreds of Irish lads over there, and it is fantastic for those who make it. But there are many more who don’t make it,” he says.

The Loughlinstown native sees his career in two parts. This second part is a far more enjoyable experience. More and more players are returning to the Eircom league to breathe life into a flagging career. In Waterford, Darryl Murphy is another example.

“Darryl has been fantastic this season, he has scored so many goals. And he is another example of the benefits of coming back from England if things don’t work out for you,” he says.

Murphy might be banging in the goals, but it is Connor’s strike that will live long in the folklore of United fans should Waterford bridge a 24-year-gap tomorrow. Up in the Brandywell, in front of live television cameras, for the semi-final, United were awarded a penalty and Alan Reynolds ordered his keeper to take it.

“We were kicking around before the game, I was joking to one of the lads that I’m on penalties. It was a joke, but when the ref signalled the penalty, I was looking up the field and Renny (Reynolds) started waving at me.

“I didn’t believe him, thought it was a joke. But he wanted me up. So, I went up and knew what I wanted to do. There was only one thing on my mind, hitting the back of the net.”

When he got back to Dublin, his whole family were still up, replaying the video of the penalty.

“We have a squad of players who have a will to win and energy to just die for each other. I am delighted just to be here, being involved in a cup final, possibly something that wouldn’t have happened if I remained in England, certainly I wouldn’t have played in Europe which will happen if we beat Longford,” he says.

In an alternative world, Connor is preparing to face the strike-force of Hartlepool today in the third tier of English football. But, as he now accepts, that’s not necessarily a better world. Tomorrow, he is between the posts at Lansdowne Road, the promise of a cup medal and European football in the air. A much better world.