| 6. What's the best advice you have received? |
| Raymond Bell the under 18s manager would always say “complacency never brings success” and I use that as a form of motivation. Especially at Linfield where there are brilliant young goalkeepers who would give their back teeth to be in my position. |
| 7. Who's been the biggest influence on your career? |
| My family have been the most influential part of my career, without the belief and support from my mum and dad I wouldn’t be where I am now! |
| 8. Who do you play like/compare yourself to? |
| I can’t say that I compare myself to anyone really |
| 9. Did you have any idols when you were younger? |
| As far as idols go, Peter Schmeichel was mine! |
| 10. How often do you train and what is your favourite drill or practice? |
| I train roughly three times a week with the squad and twice a week on my own in the gym strength training! I enjoy any drill that involves reactions and quick thinking! |
| 11. What are your strengths/weaknesses? |
| I’m quite tall which gives me a huge advantage from corners, crosses and 1on1s. Shot stopping is my biggest strength whereas I am weaker in the area of distribution. I can kick and throw far enough but am always working to improve my accuracy. |
| 12. Are you good at saving penalty kicks? Do you have a technique for every penalty kick you face? |
| I tend to go through the same routine with every penalty yeah. I open my arms out and try to fill the net as much as I can, as well as looking at the body language of my opponent for those tell tale signs! |
| 13. What's it like working with Alan Mannus? |
| Hard to sum up really! It’s a privilege to be the understudy to the goalkeeper who I rate the best in the country. Working alongside the likes of Alan this year and Greg Shannon last year has really improved me as a keeper. Alan has given me some great pointers that have made a big difference to my game! He’s all that professional stands for I guess! |
| 14. What do you think off your boss David Jeffery? You can sum him up in a few words if you like. |
| He’s a great manager who is extremely passionate about Linfield and all that goes with the club! I honestly couldn’t name you another person who could carry out the role he has at Linfield! One of the most influential and motivating speakers I’ve ever heard give a teamtalk! |
| 15. How did you feel when you made your Linfield first team debut this season against the Welders? |
| Very proud, even though I only lasted 13 mins before tearing the tendon in my groin and having to hand my shirt and gloves to midfielder Michael Gault! |
| 16. How do you deal with criticism? |
| I can take it on board and use it in a constructive way! You have to at this level, because when you're with the winning club in the league everyone wants to beat you! |
| 17. You’ve been injured for the first part of the 2007/08 season how did you feel when you were not able to train or play? |
| Awful!! It has been the most frustrating barrier I’ve ever had to get through but luckily I had two great physios at hand (Terry Hayze) and (Gordon McCartney), an understanding coach (Alan Simpson) and a patient manager. Without these people I would never have it through so well! |
| 18. You’ve been voted Northern Ireland sexiest man 2007/08 how did you feel about that? How did this come about? Who put you forward etc? ? |
| Ha-Ha! This has no relevance to goalkeeping whatsoever! All joking aside it is in fact true and it’s obviously something used by team mates and staff as a form of abuse towards me but like I said earlier I can deal with criticism in a constructive way! |
| 19. What is your ambitions career playing wise not on the cat walk? Where do you see yourself in five years time? |
| The cat walk was never part of my plans so as far as football goes I would have to say that my ambitions for this season would be to appear in the first team squad as much as possible and for the future, to be established as a number 1 keeper if not at Linfield, any of the other top Irish league clubs! I would obviously love to turn full time professional so I guess I’ll strive for that! |
| 20. What's been the best moment of your career so far? |
| The best moments have been with Linfield! Captaining the under 18s last year and winning the league and Harry Cavan youth cup where great times for me. Signing for the senior squad, well you already know my views on that! |
| 21. And the worst? |
| The worst has to be getting injured on my debut against the Welders. |
| 22. On Saturday or when you play how do you prepare for a game? |
| I usually try to relax and visualise myself making saves, taking crosses, kicking etc prior to the game and for part of the warm up! I would find myself going through different scenarios in my head and how I would deal with them. I like to clear my head of everything but the task ahead! |
| 23.What make of gloves do you wear? What model of gloves do you wear? |
| I wear Reusch Serria a 3. I couldn’t wear anything that isn’t roll finger. |
| 24. What boots do you wear? |
| I’m wearing anything the kit man at Linfield can spare me but at the min I’m wearing Umbro Speaciali boots. |
| 25. Who would you say is the best keeper in the world at the moment? |
| I think Van Der Sar. I like his style of goalkeeping! |
| 26. Who is the best keeper or keepers in the Irish League? |
| Well in my opinion Alan Mannus because he is the most consistent keeper in the league at the min but I think Ballymena’s keeper Paul Murphy is a great talent! . |
| 27. Who’s the best player you’ve played with? |
| Glen Ferguson!. |
| 28. What’s the best stadium you’ve played in? |
| The Boras Stadium, Elfsborg’s ground was pretty impressive! |
| 29. Who’s the biggest joker in the dressing room? |
| There’s a few names that spring to mind but Steven Douglas is probably the biggest joker! |
| 30. Who’s the best and worst dressed at Linfield? |
| Best Dressed is probably Billy Blue the team mascot. Worst… Where do I start? |
| 31. Who is in charge of the dressing room stereo? |
| Michael Gault! Loves his dance tunes! |
| 32. Have you any secrets that you want to share with us about Alan Mannus? |
| Can I just say that I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. A lot of people won’t know this but Alan, being the professional that he is, always is looking for alternative methods of training to improve his game. He has recently joined the Royal School of Ballet in order to work on his flexibility and foot work! |
| 33. What music do you listen to? |
| Mainly dance music but I listen to pretty much anything! I’m a big fan of the rock band Nickleback. |
| 34. What TV programmes do you watch? |
| I love anything to do with survival or wildlife documentaries. Bear Gryllis ultimate survival is my favourite!
|
| 35. What car do you drive? |
| Well when I’m not on the farm in my Massey Ferguson I can be seen driving the (Red Pocket Rocket) or aka Vauxhall Corsa! |
| 36. What’s your favourite food/drink? |
| My favourite food is Shepherd’s pie and favourite drink has to be milk or my daily intake of Tahitian noni juice!
|
| 37.What is your nickname? And why? |
| Right my nickname is “Mushy”! Stop laughing, it was one of those hand down things. My dad got it from his friends when he was a kid at school and now I’m carrying it into the next generation! |
| 38. The Setanta Cup will be starting soon, what do you think of having an all Ireland League? What would be the pluses and the minuses? |
| I think an all Ireland league would be fantastic for football in this country as it would possibly encourage more people from across the water to take more of an interest in Irish football! The minuses would be the money it would take to do that and the travelling for fans would be tougher but hey that’s what fans do, they follow there team anywhere. |
| 39. If you were put in charge of Football for Northern Ireland how would you go about attracting more people to come and watch Irish League football instead of them going over to watch the likes of Manchester United/ Liverpool/ Rangers / Celtic? |
| I think things are heading in the right direction now with Sky televising games and the success of the National team has definitely made a difference especially with Alan Mannus and Peter Thompson now pushing their way into the squad! |
| 40. If you weren’t a keeper what other position would you like to play? |
| When I was at school I actually played a couple of games as a striker and enjoyed that so I guess I would be trying to score goals instead of saving them if I wasn’t a keeper. |
| 41. Describe yourself in five words… |
| Determined, hard working, passionate, committed and competitive! |
