Kelly rolls with punches

It might be a little more hectic than he'd like right now, although you won't hear any complaints from Alan Kelly. With four days to go before Ireland's crucial European Championship qualifier against Yugoslavia, the 31-year-old rarely stops working but his good humour never threatens to desert him.

And why would it? Corner the Preston-born international goalkeeper for long enough to catch up on his recent movements and you discover that all in the Kelly camp are wearing rather self-satisfied smiles these days. It's been that sort of summer, you see, a return to the Irish starting line up for the game against Macedonia in June was welcome enough. But a move to Blackburn - his old backyard - and suddenly it seems like somebody up there likes him again.

Leaving Sheffield United hurt and Kelly insists that the parting wasn't any of his doing. It was, he says, the flip side of the Bosman ruling, the fact that for those players who aren't likely to have a string of clubs chasing them, refusing a move or a new contract can look like a very big gamble indeed. Heading into the last year of his contract at the first division club, the player and his agent were expecting to do a bit of talking about his contract but United had other ideas.

At a club like United, one that in recent years has consistently made Everton look well run, they viewed a full international with a year to run on his contract in much the same way that cartoon cats see canaries in cages and promptly imagine oven ready birds in roasting dishes.

Kelly was hawked around and when Aberdeen backed off upon hearing his current earnings, rumoured during the negotiations to top £6,000 a week, Blackburn, where such sums are but small change, stepped in and quickly tied up a deal worth £650,000.

"The whole thing sort of happened," says Kelly a couple of weeks on, "without me knowing too much about it. I'd just gotten back from talking to Aberdeen and I told Adrian I wouldn't be going there. Straight away, he says to me `well, sit tight, Blackburn are in for you' and within a couple of days the deal was done."

Having not wanted to move - "To be honest I saw myself seeing my days out there" - Kelly admits that he can scarcely believe the way it has all worked out for him. Though Blackburn have made a terrible start to the new campaign, Rovers are widely expected to go straight back up and Kelly is once again playing under Brian Kidd, the assistant manager back at Preston when the Irishman was persuaded to forsake a career as an electrician.

The decision to abandon his trade meant going against his father's wishes. Capped 47 times by the Republic, Alan senior knew just how precarious a goalkeeper's life could be. Finally forced out of the game by a shoulder injury after making more than 400 league appearances for Preston, he had seen quite a few young lads come and go during his time in the game and Alan junior at that stage had had barely been goalkeeping a wet week.

Much like any other young brothers, Alan and his older brother Gary, currently at Oldham, had played countless games of ball in their back garden over the years. In contrast to most of the rest, though, the battle every time in this north of England household was who got to go in goal rather than who had to. Gary was bigger, Alan ended up taking the shots and was signed as a youth by North End to play at full back.

"I was nearly 16 when the goalkeeper got injured in a practice game and because I was Alan Kelly's son I was told to get in there. I did really well and as soon as the game was over the coach came over and said: `That's it for you, you're not coming out again'. It didn't worry me because it felt right to me, to be honest, and I took to it very quickly. Within 18 months they offered me an eight-month contract and taking it is still about the only time I went against my father."

Within three years his father came close to being proven right. Out walking not far from his home in the town, Kelly was hit by a motorcycle ("it didn't get past me," he chuckles "and being a bike, there was no rebound to worry about either") which shattered the bones in his leg.

He was out for a year, the first five months of which were spent on crutches. Remarkably, the same surgeon who had operated on his father's shoulder looked after him and, gradually, he worked his way back to fitness - only to break the same leg within eight weeks of getting back playing and missing another six months.

Perhaps understandably, some thought he would never make it back properly but "I never believed it for one day. I used to go to all the games and when a director came up to me at one point and asked me whether I fancied a new career selling cars I couldn't believe it. There wasn't a day when it ever occurred to me that I wouldn't get back playing again."

Later, after seven years as a professional and 150 first team matches at Deepdale, Dave Bassett offered Kelly £150,000 plus bonuses based on appearances for the still relatively unknown goalkeeper. He will, he says, always be grateful to Bassett for bringing him to Bramall Lane for much of what has happened since might not have if Bassett hadn't had such confidence in him.

Within a matter of months he was playing regular first team football in the Premiership and the following February Jack Charlton capped him at senior level for the first time, throwing him on half-way through a friendly with Wales at Tolka Park - where his father's career had started with Drumcondra.

Since then Kelly has been to a World Cup and played in several of Ireland's most memorable games. He made his full debut in Hanover in May 1994 when the Republic beat the then world champions 2-0, played in the 4-0 win in Belfast and, though the result wasn't what he'd hoped for, he still remembers well the European championship play-off against the Netherlands at Anfield.

Still, he has seemed to find himself playing second fiddle for most of his international career, first to Packie Bonner and more recently to Shay Given. The way in which Mick McCarthy has heaped praise upon Kelly's young rival from Donegal over the past couple of seasons has always given the impression that the 31-year-old would always be number two.

Kelly, though, doesn't see it that way. "There's always competition and that's good. I mean I've just gone to Blackburn and people expect John Filan to play, which is fair enough because last season he was their player of the year, but that doesn't frighten me. When I went to United it was as the number two but I got into the team and averaged 35 games a season while I was there.

"With Ireland I think I've been a little unfortunate with the timing of the injuries that I've picked up. They've let Shay come in and get established but I've had no complaints. He was the man in possession, he did well and I just worked hard and waited my turn. Hopefully next week I'll get my chance and then it'll be up to me to keep my place."

It's been his, in fact, since the win over Macedonia in June, a game which he admits went some way towards exorcising the ghosts of the 3-2 defeat in which he also played in a couple of seasons ago.

"It meant a lot to me, us winning that game," he laughs "and I've had a right good summer off the back of it." Now, though, he's turning his attention to following it up with a right good winter.