McCourt not fazed by threats made to Lennon

PATRICK McCourt has set his sights on reviving his Northern Ireland international career as a Celtic player and insists the disturbing experience which infamously prompted Neil Lennon to quit playing for the country will not deter him.

The 24-year-old winger, who signed for Celtic in an unexpected £150,000 move from Derry City last week, was formally introduced to the media by the Scottish champions yesterday.

McCourt will join his new team-mates for pre-season training next week and meet Lennon, now the club's first-team coach, for the first time.

Former Celtic captain Lennon called time on his Northern Ireland career in August 2002 after pulling out of a match against Cyprus at Windsor Park following death threats claiming to be on behalf of a paramilitary organisation.

McCourt, capped nine times at under-21 level, made his senior international debut four months earlier at the age of 18. Viewed as the new prodigy of Northern Irish football, the then-Rochdale player replaced Keith Gillespie for the final 13 minutes of a friendly against Spain in Belfast which Lennon missed.

It remains McCourt's only appearance for Northern Ireland so far, his career having faltered with unsuccessful trials at Motherwell, Norwich and Crewe before returning to the League of Ireland to play for Shamrock Rovers and then his home town club Derry. If he can force his way into the Celtic first team, he will clearly become a firm contender for a recall to his country's colours for the forthcoming World Cup qualifying campaign and he says he would have no reservations about the prospect. "Playing for Northern Ireland is not something I'm thinking about right at the minute," said McCourt, "because I've got to get myself to a level of fitness here first and my first priority is to get into the Celtic team.

"If I can do that, then Northern Ireland would hopefully want me. If it happens, I will be more than happy to go and play for them. I don't know Neil Lennon, but I think he can definitely be a big help to me. Everyone knows the stuff he went through with Northern Ireland, but he came out of it a stronger and better person. I'm looking forward to working with him and as I'm from Northern Ireland, I'm sure he'll put his arm around me and look out for me."

McCourt believes he now has both the maturity and opportunity to fulfil the potential others saw in him as a teenager but which, by his own admission, he neglected to make the most of as his career went into reverse.

"Sammy McIlroy, who was manager of Northern Ireland at the time and gave me that cap, said I was going to be the next big thing for the country's football," reflected McCourt. "At the time, I didn't feel it put me under any pressure, but looking back now I was probably under more pressure than I realised. I probably took my foot off the gas a wee bit, I thought I had done enough already. That can happen when you hear people saying good things about you. I probably thought I'd already done enough to earn a move to the Premier League, but it never happened.

"I stopped doing the things I had been doing in my first couple of years at Rochdale, the things that had got me noticed. I had to take a step back and start enjoying my football again.

"That's what I've done over the last three years, I've let my football do the talking. I'm a different person now and a different player. I've learned a lot and I'm now playing the best football of my life. If Celtic believe I can do it at this level, then I have to believe I can do it. I'm going to have to improve a lot, but Celtic have the staff and the facilities to improve me another 10 or 20 per cent, physically and football wise."

McCourt was close to joining West Bromwich Albion last week but jumped at the chance to join the club he has supported since childhood. "I had almost agreed personal terms with West Brom and had a medical booked for the next day," he said. "But when I got the call to say Celtic wanted me, there was only one thing I was going to do. It was an amazing feeling and it's been a hectic few days. I used to idolise players like Lubo Moravcik and Henrik Larsson when I was at school and to now be a Celtic player is incredible."

Too much, too young for a special Rochdale player

TO AN unfashionable lower league club in north-west England, Paddy McCourt's name will forever evoke fond memories and heavy-hearted regret in equal measure.

Superstars and Rochdale AFC rarely cross paths – little wonder, then, that McCourt is still revered in some quarters around Spotland, such was the fervour surrounding his potential as a teenage starlet forcing his way into the first-team reckoning.

Rochdale picked him up from Derry outfit Foyle Harps and his ability on the wing quickly marked him out as a special talent.

My first recollection of Paddy was a youth team game when he collected the ball with his back to goal, turned sharply, taking out two defenders in the process, dribbled his way past another and thumped it into the back of the net. It remains the greatest goal I've ever witnessed in all my time as a sports journalist.

I was won over instantly, and it didn't take the youngster long to capture the hearts of loyal Rochdalians. The club's fanbase is only small, but the hard core following still talk fondly of him even now.

A matchwinner with astounding ball control, Paddy would be anonymous for periods of the game before bursting into life with a decisive contribution far too classy for lower league defenders to cope with. Good with both feet and able to create absolute chaos in and around the penalty area, on his day he was likened to a poor man's George Best.

The club handed him a three-and-a-half year contract just short of his 18th birthday and we were all wondering just how long the club could hang on to this world-beater.

So where did it go wrong for Paddy?

Quite simply, it was all a bit too much, too soon. For all his talent, Paddy was a young kid torn away from his homeland and he struggled to adapt to life in England. It's one thing to be in the swanky city centre, quite another to reside in one of the grey, built-up towns around Greater Manchester.

His fitness also became an issue for then manager Steve Parkin, who built teams with a strong focus on hard work and endeavour. Paddy, it's fair to say, was no grafter back then, and he did not fit into Parkin's style.

In Glasgow, with a stronger connection to his Irish roots and with the benefit of greater maturity on Paddy's part, he can finally realise that potential on the stage it deserves. Everyone in Rochdale will be rooting for him.