Murphy riding on Mexican wave

World Youth ChampionshipPlaying in midfield for Waterford Gaelic football and hurling clubs Ballygunner and Gall Tír to playing in goal for the Irish soccer team at the World Youth Cup in the United Arab Emirates? It's been a dizzy journey for Brian Murphy these past five years.

He wouldn't even be at the championships if he hadn't happened to discover he had "good hands" at 13, when he started playing football seriously.

"Gaelic football and hurling were my first loves, played for Waterford, then the soccer just kind of happened. Joined Waterford Bohemians, but I didn't even take it that seriously then - I went to about seven or eight clubs in England on trial but I just thought they were great trips away, no more than that." By the time he was 16, though, the man from Dunmore East was signed up by Manchester City, having spent time at Manchester United and been offered a deal by Leeds.

Plain sailing from the day he arrived? "No," he laughs. "First night I went over . . . I'll admit it . . . I was in tears. Keep that quiet now. I just wanted to get home, my parents said they'd sort out a flight for me, but the club told me to give it a week. Took me about a year and half to settle in and enjoy it - it was grand then.

"It was hard, but it was the best decision I ever made, to give it a shot - and I'm here today, playing in a World Cup, there's nothing that can match that in football terms, it's the third-biggest competition after the senior World Cup and the European Championships. If I had to retire after this, well, I wouldn't be happy, but it's something I'll always remember, something to tell the grandkids." (How many of them do you have? "None. I hope.")

The moment Murphy had been waiting for came on Friday morning when manager Gerry Smith told him he was in the starting line-up for the game against Mexico, replacing Wayne Henderson, with whom he has been competing at international level since they were both 15 years of age.

"I was very surprised to be playing, I thought Wayne did well in the first two games, but I wasn't complaining. We might have double the caps if we weren't the same age. I first met him at Irish trials when we were 14, and we've been battling away ever since - trying to improve all the time, but we're only 20, God help us."

Do you get on? "Well, we've been sharing a room for the last five years so we'd want to get on. Ah yeah, we do. And whatever team Gerry puts out against Colombia is the one he thinks will win it, and we'll both accept that - I hope I'm in it, but if I'm not I'll wish Wayne well and he'll do the same for me."

After a flawless display against Mexico, in which he kept a clean sheet, Murphy looks set to retain his place in the team against Colombia - if he recovers from the recurrence of an ankle injury he first picked up in a friendly against Al-Ain soon after the squad arrived in the city.

"I just went over on the left ankle again in training so I've been getting a bit of treatment on it. I'm confident enough it will be okay, but I don't want to tempt fate."

If he's fit, selected and plays like he did against Mexico, Murphy hopes his manager back at Swansea City, Brian Flynn, will be watching. After turning down the offer of a new one-year deal at Manchester City last summer, Murphy moved to the Welsh club, but lost his place to Roger Freestone ("who's 16, 17 years older than me") early in the season.

"It was frustrating when it happened because I left City to get first-team experience and to try and work my way back up again, because I felt I wasn't going anywhere there.

"I've just worked so hard over the last five or six months at Swansea, maybe I got a little bit lazy at City, it got difficult - when Peter Schmeichel was brought in it meant I wasn't getting as many games for the reserves as I did the year before, so when you're not playing every week you feel like you're training for nothing. They offered me another year, but I just felt I had to get out of there.

"But I'm still young and I know the (Swansea) manager rates me, so I just have to wait for my chance. Hopefully, this will give me an extra push to try and get back in."

Can you beat Colombia? How far can Ireland go?

"Well, we have a belief in this squad, we believed we could get out of the group and we've done that. Now we feel we can go a long way, but we can't take our minds off Colombia - if you start thinking two or three games down the line you get knocked out.

"We've lost three players for the game (Stephen Kelly, Glenn Whelan and Darren Potter) and they're three big players, played every game and they'd all been playing so well, but this is a strong squad so I know the lads who come in will do just as good a job.

"The main thing is we haven't let ourselves down so far, so we just have to press on now and make everyone proud at home, and make ourselves proud too. There were about 1,500 Irish fans at the last game, which was amazing, and the feeling of winning the group, well, we don't want that feeling to stop. It's been a wonderful experience, the best of my life, and I don't want it to end against Colombia."