THIS time last year Brian Carrigan was preparing for a game at Largs Thistle's less than salubrious Barrfield Park. This weekend he hopes to realise a life-long dream by running out at Parkhead in front of 60,000 supporters.
The old cliche that "football is a funny old game" could not be more apt for the Hamilton Accies striker after making the transition from Junior footballer to SPL player in just 12 months, but then Carrigan's career has never followed the path trod
den by your average player.
Eyebrows were raised throughout the Scottish game this summer when New Douglas Park manager Billy Reid splashed out £17,500 to bring Carrigan from the Junior ranks on a one-year deal with an option of a further year, making Carrigan the most expensive player in Junior football history.
At 28, Carrigan certainly doesn't fall into the promising youngster category yet Reid, who has known the player since he was just 13, believed he could make the jump of four divisions after scoring 66 goals in two seasons in the Juniors.
Injury has thus far denied Carrigan the chance to show what he can do but now that he's fit again with a couple of reserve games under his belt he's determined to show that he can re-create the kind of displays that made him such a star for the Prestonfield over the last couple of seasons.
Carrigan has the opportunity to fulfil a life-long dream by turning out against his boyhood heroes on Saturday, and he admits he sometimes has to pinch himself to make sure he isn't dreaming.
"The prospect of playing at Celtic Park is a bit different from trips to Whitburn and Hill of Beath isn't it!" he laughed. "It still seems strange when I'm asked about the SPL season but it's a nice feeling. It's all a bit mad but I'm loving every minute of it.
"It's a massive jump up from the last couple of seasons but it's one I'm relishing. I really can't wait to step out at Parkhead because I'm a massive Celtic fan as I think everybody knows. It would be amazing to play there as I've never done it before. Now I just need to talk to the gaffer and make sure I'm in the team!
"I knew before I came I was going to need some extra training, and that it would take me a bit of time to get used to being full-time again, because it was only two nights a week at Linlithgow."
Carrigan was heralded as one of the country's most promising players as a teenager with Clyde and spent a week on trial at Liverpool as a host of clubs both north and south of the border chased his signature. Although a move to Anfield failed to materialise Carrigan, or "Carrots" as he is known, did win a £150,000 switch to Stockport County where big things were expected of him.
However, life south of the border quickly turned sour and he was sacked for "persistent gross misconduct" after less than a year at Edgeley Park following a series of off-field problems and a quick-fire return to Clyde followed.
He appeared to get back on track in June 2003 when he put pen to paper on a deal with Accies where, during a three year stint, he played arguably the best football of his career. With undoubted ability it was always Carrigan's temperament and attitude that threatened to get in the way of a successful career and his ability to shoot himself in the foot looked to have struck again when, despite being named Hamilton's Player of the Year, he turned his back on Senior football and moved to the Junior ranks.
It looked as though the Glasgow-born player was set to be consigned to the long list of nearly men yet it was while at Rose that Carrigan rediscovered his love for the game, helping the club to the coveted Scottish Junior Cup and Super League title in his first campaign and an historic first-ever place in the Scottish Cup where they reached the fourth round before being beaten by eventual runners-up Queen of the South.
Yet throughout the trials and tribulations, Carrigan's self belief has never wavered and, like all good footballers, he has the self-confidence required to back up his trickery on the pitch.
"When I went to the Juniors there were a lot of critics and I knew if I didn't score a lot of goals then I'd be deemed a failure," he said. "But I did score goals and I repaid the people at Linlithgow for the chance they gave me. I really enjoyed my time there and hopefully I was as good for them as they were for me.
"Now I want to show that Billy was right to give me this chance. It's an opportunity I didn't think I'd ever get again to be honest and I'm just delighted that the manager had the faith to sign me.
"Billy and the rest of the coaching team and board have been great with me and I want to thank them and repay them for giving me this opportunity. But that's what this club seems to be about, giving people chances.
"They've given young players a shot at proving themselves and they've done it with me so I'm really thankful. There are probably six or seven guys, maybe more, who were here when I was at Hamilton before, so that has helped as well."
The full article contains 943 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
