Hero Meyler puts family first on Tigers’ biggest day

Remembering how to celebrate scoring a goal may have posed David Meyler a challenge on Sunday, but there was no doubting to whom the memorable moment of netting against Liverpool was being dedicated to.

The Corkman didn’t allow the gaze of the television cameras that tracked his dart to the corner flag pass without letting those close to him know of his innermost thoughts.

Gareth Bale’s heart gesture this certainly wasn’t. More direct was Meyler’s production from his sock of a green shinpad emblazoned with names of his parents, John and Stella, sister Sarah and topped by a tricolour of the country he’s longed to represent.

Seldom within the highly-paid, bravado-filled world of professional football do players revert to first principles, the backbone of their upbringing, yet Meyler has never indulged the stereotypical footballer rituals of flash cars and champagne lifestyle since Roy Keane transported him as a teen from Cork City to Sunderland.

His father John, an ardent hurling devotee, flanked his son throughout the journey from the high of his Premier League debut in December 2009, the steep dips from successive serious knee injuries which wiped almost two years off his career, and back up the hill last May when promotion to the top-flight was secured with Hull City.

Domestic commitments, sadly, prevented him attending Sunday’s KC Stadium showdown where his returning son spearheaded Hull City’s 3-1 victory over the high-flying Reds. Out of sight, maybe, yet not out of mind as the raising of the shinpad into the camera’s glare demonstrated.

The prevalence of pushy parents is renowned as a scourge of sport but Meyler thrived amid the demands placed on him by his father as a kid.

“I wanted to win, be it 1-0 or 10-0,” he recounts. “My dad also used to say if you can win you might as well win by as much as you can. Let them know they’ve been beaten.”

One major battle that confronted the Meylers first surfaced three years ago with his mother’s cancer diagnosis. While her offspring had his knee wrapped in plaster for the second time in 18 months, Stella was undertaking her own medical treatment of a much more serious kind.

The 24-year-old, a frequent mass-goer, places plenty of store in his faith, a conviction that helped mother and son emerge from their struggles stronger in mind and body.

Yesterday, as he reflected on his first Premier League goal, his family and the route they travelled to reach the top was to the fore in his musings.

“I supported Liverpool growing up before I came to England, so it’s great to score against them,” he said ahead of tomorrow’s trip to table-toppers Arsenal. “My father was Liverpool too, as is my best pal Gavin, who was at the game on Sunday.”

For all his father’s sentimentality about the Reds, there was no denying his priorities on Sunday.

“My dad would have killed me if I’d missed that scoring chance,” beamed his son.

Once the former St Michael’s GAA player cements his place in Steve Bruce’s midfield, there’s the task of convincing another familiar mentor, Martin O’Neill, of his readiness for international elevation.

Adding to his modest total of four Ireland caps features highly on the wish-list for 2014, albeit a target that has its place in the list of priorities.

His travails of recent years, both on and off the pitch, have persuaded Meyler to live in the moment. Getting by with a little help from friends and family will do just fine for now.