A not-so-old Harte is getting there

A Year on The Wear:As the place where Bob Paisley was born almost 90 years ago, the former pit village of Hetton-le-Hole has its place in football history guaranteed.

Located south of Sunderland in old County Durham, built on seams stretching out into the North Sea, one of which was called Maudlin Seam, Hetton has seen better days. Once George Stephenson built a railway direct from the village to the Wear to transport the coal, but Margaret Thatcher put a stop to that and today Hetton feels off several beaten tracks.

Football still matters here, though, because at the ground belonging to Eppleton Colliery Welfare, Sunderland play their reserve games.

So it was that on Wednesday night in front of a thousand or so, up against Bolton's reserves and a long way from Croke Park, or Lansdowne Road, or La Liga or even Leeds United, Ian Harte's re-assimilation into English football continued.

He looked at ease, he even scored (a second-half penalty) having previously clipped a crossbar with a trademark, up-and-down curling free-kick. Harte passed the ball long and short with accuracy and at the end of another 90 minutes featuring that choppy running style of his, professed himself to be "getting there".

Harte looked fresh-faced for someone of such experience - caps, 64 - and then you remember his date of birth is August 1977. The theoretical fact is that Ian Harte is much younger than he should be. Those three out-of-sight years with Levante in Spain made you think he was 34, or more.

Instead, Harte is barely a veteran, though he might appear so to the 17-year-old tricksters in the Sunderland midfield. Tell them he made his Leeds debut in January 1996, or that his international debut came the following month, and the eyes would roll. Both were substitute appearances, one for Thomas Brolin, one for Terry Phelan.

That's bridging eras.

And last Sunday at Arsenal, another call from the bench, for a 90-second Sunderland debut. Three years after leaving the damned Leeds United, this was Harte back in English football proper.

"I've been out in Spain for three years, which was good times and bad times, but I've always wanted to come back to England," he said on Eppleton's touchline on Wednesday. "I'm just delighted that Sunderland have given me a chance and I feel like a young lad again, excited.

"It's been a while since I have played at this level, but I remember those days, playing at Halifax for Leeds. I've bought a house, and hopefully within the next 10 days that'll go through. My wife and two kids will be up and we'll be more settled then. I'm really happy here and I signed one year with the possibility of an extension, so I hope I can stay here more than one year.

"By the end of my time in Spain I was enjoying the football but I wasn't really enjoying everything, and to come back to such a massive club, knowing the gaffer and the chairman, who I played with as well.

"I'm not playing at the moment, so the most important thing for me is to get the fitness and get in a winning frame of mind again. I've played a few reserve games now and I was on the bench the other day and got a couple of minutes. So, hopefully, I can get a chance, sooner rather than later."

Roy Keane will be the judge of if and when, but Keane watched Harte and the rest on Wednesday and doubtless would admire that mention of a "winning frame of mind".

But as Keane says often, it's about balance, and one of the deciding factors may be whether the Premier League has got faster since Harte went to Spain where, in the second division, football is slower.

It was in the Leeds meltdown summer of 2004 that Harte went to the little-known (over here) Levante, in Valencia.

Leeds had been relegated, with Harte playing in the season's finale at Stamford Bridge. Jesper Gronkjaer scored the game's only goal against a Leeds team including Harte, Gary Kelly, Alan Smith, James Milner, Dominic Matteo and Jermaine Pennant. Scott Carson was in goal.

Leeds fans can get out the hankies, because it gets worse. That, after all, was only four years after Leeds and Harte had been to Valencia for the European Cup semi-final. Leeds were England's and Europe's coming club and Harte was 23.

But then Leeds were gone and Harte was too, off to La Liga. It was eventful. Levante were relegated in his first season, promoted in his second and stayed up narrowly in his third. But a serious knee injury meant last season featured only six games for Harte, four from the bench, the last of which was in March in the beautiful San Sebastian. That is a long way from County Durham.

Harte was released by Levante and began training on his own. Professionals tend not to inspire sympathy, but Harte could be excused self-pity. Then, in August, came Sunderland and now, Hetton-le-Hole.

But it has an atmosphere, Eppleton Colliery Welfare, and standing there thinking of the Stadium of Light and of Sunderland's multi-million training ground, Harte spoke of the "remarkable" job done by Niall Quinn and Keane over the past year. "But we need to forget about that now."

His assessment of the game just ended was also businesslike. Sunderland won 3-0, but all the goals came in the second half when Sunderland "needed to be quicker".

Roy O'Donovan also scored, but his performance was a bit hit-and-miss overall. And there was a goal for Michael Liddle, an English-born, Ireland under-18 player. They, too, are "getting there" and both could do worse than listen to what their new not-so-old colleague has to say about places like Hetton-le-Hole, how they help and why they matter.