A Bit O' Red

 

July 2018, 5 years since my last trip ‘home’.

A little town in the Northwest of Ireland that pretty much no one has ever heard of, yet holds a special place in my heart. Sligo.

Last time round, I was a baby faced 16-year-old, just happy to be on a summer holiday. Funnily enough, I’m now a baby-faced 21-year-old who’s also just happy to have a little break, albeit under different circumstances. This is now a solo-trip, one with greater significance than just a regular holiday.

5 years back, I was able to train with Sligo Rovers’ U17 team, an opportunity which at the time was a huge step-up from any of the football I had participated in previously. I was just a boy who loved football, but didn’t really have any ambitions of making something out of it. Sligo Rovers were my Dad’s team, and his Dad’s team and so on and so forth. The small, community club was part of our family and we were a part of the Bit O’Red (Sligo Rovers’ nickname).

I had been to countless summer camps in the years previous, meeting first team players in the process, watching matches and growing an affinity for the club that was based thousands of kilometres away from where I was year-round. It was standard procedure for my family on our trips back, I’d be at the camp for a week or two, whilst my brother and parents got up to whatever else they felt like. I only ever wanted to be at the camp. There was just something about playing football at the Showgrounds that felt so special to me, something that hasn’t faded.

The opportunity to train with the first team this summer was something that I had always had in the back of my mind as a little pipe dream. A chance to test myself amongst the type of players I looked up to for years, but now as a fellow professional footballer myself, I guess? That is a title I certainly don’t use in my day-to-day life, but as I approach two years since I signed my first professional contract, it is something that I am absolutely proud of. Having already achieved more than I could have ever imagined, the desire to continue pushing myself and aiming for things I never would have otherwise thought could occur has not faltered.

I’ve no idea what will transpire in the next two and a half weeks, but I’m determined to enjoy every second of this amazing opportunity and to learn as much as possible.

To improve is to change, and to perfect is to change often.