Oh brother, thou art here

IT MUST have seemed like a good idea at the time.

Stephen Hunt, Premiership veteran and Irish international, had a bet with his younger brother Noel when the latter joined him at Reading in July. The gist of it was that, if one of the brothers scored a goal, the other would have to be his slave for the week — cleaning boots, fixing lunch and generally being at his beck and call.

As the new boy on the block, following his transfer from Dundee United, Noel might have been expected to take some time to settle in. But, just three months on, he leads his older sibling by four to three in the scoring charts — and so, not surprisingly, Stephen would now prefer to revisit the whole concept of their little competition.

“Yeah, I think we better give that a rest now,” he smiles. “The way things are going, he could score too many goals for my liking.”

Like 27-year-old Stephen, Noel (25) is something of a late developer in football terms, having come up through the League of Ireland with Shamrock Rovers and Waterford United before joining Dunfermline Athletic in 2003 and then Dundee United three years later, where his goalscoring prowess brought him to the attention of Reading boss Steve Coppell. Now, Noel’s brother is tipping the in-form striker to add senior honours to his Under 21 and B international caps.

“He did very well last year in Scotland,” Stephen points out. “Sometimes people have trouble seeing beyond the top two in the SPL but if he was playing for Celtic and had scored 18 goals for them, he’d have played for Ireland last year.

“But he’s got four for us now and if he can keep going that way, he’ll have a decent chance for Ireland.”

Needless to say, it would be an especially proud day for Stephen if he could line out in the green shirt alongside his little brother, although sibling rivalry being what it is, he can’t help identifying the downside.

“It’d be nice — although he’s bad enough already,” he laughs. “If he’s coming with Ireland as well, I’ll never get a break. To be fair, he’s different to me. I’m probably quieter around the dressing room. He reckons he’s got better banter and looks. I’m not sure about the looks.”

In Dublin yesterday, to help launch the Mars ‘Work, Rest And Play’ sports survey, Hunt cut a much sunnier demeanour than when last we met, just after Reading had resisted Everton’s attempts to prise him away. Then, an animated Hunt had described himself as angry, wounded and disappointed by what he considered the club’s failure to reward him for his loyal service.

“You caught me on a good day didn’t you?” he laughed yesterday. “I haven’t even spoken to the manager about it since — maybe I need to. But he’s been good as gold with me. I understood where they were coming from and it’s one of those things where, now, I’ve got to get my head down and work hard. There’s no point crying about it now because there’s no (transfer) window. I have to achieve goals now — to play well for Reading and to stay in the Irish team for the next couple of games.”

The latter target, it seems fair to say, will be made more challenging by the anticipated return of Damien Duff.

“But that’s good for Ireland isn’t it?” Hunt parries, “and that’s the most important thing. Whoever the manager decides to pick on the day — whether it’s me, McGeady, Duff, Andy Reid, Keogh or someone else who can play on the wings — it’ll be entirely up to him. All I can say is that four points from six (in the first two qualifiers) is not a bad return. I was happy enough with my performances in terms of the team and how he wants me to play, even though I know I could have done a bit better in the second half in Montenegro — maybe fatigue played a part in me giving the ball away a few times.”

That there’s a steely self-regard beneath the good-humoured surface is made clear when Hunt is asked if he would accept that the likes of Aiden McGeady, Damien Duff and Andy Reid possess more natural footballing talent than he does.

“No — it’s about end product,” he fires back. “How many goals you score, how many crosses you get in the box as a winger, that’s the way I judge it. I know a lot of press and stuff is built around my work ethic but, at the same time, I scored seven goals last year and three this time — although two were from the spot. And I think I have the most crosses in the division so far this year. In terms of ability, yeah, McGeady has tricks but you’ve got to play to your strengths. Duffer has been world class over the years and he’s a great lad as well, he’s honest and he’ll help you out.”

Meeting the demands of the new Irish manager has placed an extra burden on the wing-men, Hunt claims.

“He must have played with some wingers he didn’t like, because he really wants his wingers to work hard,” he laughs. “He expects you to have the desire and the fitness level to defend but also to get in the box and score goals as well. All he wants us to do is get forward and get back and he probably wants the same pace going forward as back. It’s not a problem in terms of energy levels but you have to be fit, that’s for sure. But we’re athletes, we get paid to do it.”

Looking ahead to the three home games, Hunt says the target has to be maximum points — beginning by setting the record straight against our old friends the Cypriots at Croke Park next month.

“The previous games against Cyprus have been mentioned by a few of their players, in terms of the desire to beat them this time,” he admits. “Last time they came to Croke Park was probably the worst game I’ve played in an Irish jersey — and the worst experience I’ve had in an Irish jersey. It would be nice to put that right.”