Gamble finally paying off for resurgent Eunan O’Kane

As he serenaded his new team-mates with an initiation song after dinner last night, uncapped Ireland midfielder Eunan O’Kane could understand how the choice of ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers has resonance to his career.

Everton manager David Moyes has discarded the Toffees trainee in 2009, leaving O’Kane to seek an outlet for redemption back in Ireland with Coleraine. Though the experience of playing men’s football as a teen toughened him up, its function as a springboard back into the professional ranks only generated an offer from English fourth division Torquay United.

O’Kane had the choice to hold his cards or fold them. Being a big fish in a small pond didn’t enrich him but carried benefits, especially the location being so commutable to his family home in Derry.