Forde: It’s been a long journey from Galway
There we were, huddled around him near an exit in the corner of the Maurice Dufrasne stadium, when suddenly the Italian team bus, bringing the Azzurri to the ground for training, approached us at a good clip — and showed no sign of stopping.
Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, our little huddle parted to make way and then reformed and resumed our conversation as the bus pulled up beside us, with Andrea Pirlo looking down on Forde’s head from his window seat.
You couldn’t help thinking that it was a long way from there to here, from Galway via Derry City and Cardiff City to Millwall and Ireland, for the big man.
“Yeah a lot of mileage and everything else,” he agreed, “but I finally got there in the end. I’m just going to go out now and enjoy myself and hopefully it goes well. You dream of it all the time, you set your goals and it’s been top of my list really to represent my country. It’s every boy’s dream isn’t it?”
The turning point?
“There were so many really. I suppose going back to Derry (for a second period) was one, then getting back over to Cardiff City. But I suppose the main one was probably getting down to Millwall and playing regularly in the last three seasons and not missing a game. That was probably the main factor and getting into the Championship was the main decider for me getting into the Irish squad at least. It was a minimum requirement really.”
At 31, and with just one sub appearance in the Carling Cup behind him, Forde is Ireland ‘s oldest post-war debutant — “That’s a nice stat, isn’t it?” he smiled. “that’s one to tell the grandkids anyway” – but a different stat is uppermost in his mind. Having kept 20 clean sheets for Millwall this season, he’d dearly love to stretch it to 21 against Italy.
“That would be fantastic,” he said. “We’ll give it our best shot.”
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