Alan Carey: UCD were very strong that time and playing attractive football under Martin Russell

Serving Cork City, Waterford United and Cobh Ramblers with distinction during the noughties and beyond, Alan Carey’s League of Ireland career was based firmly within Munster’s boundaries. In a recent chat with ExtraTime.ie, Alan recalls his playing days.

As a young defender, Carey signed for local side Cork City, making a breakthrough into the first team in 2000: “I played a year or two with the youth team, then did a pre-season with Dave Barry managing. I didn’t get in that year, but played in the reserves. It wasn’t until Liam Murphy came in that I got called up out of the blue to play. Then there were no games for around a month because of the foot-and-mouth disease, but I trained hard. It was great for me, even though we were struggling in the league. I had a fantastic four or five years, but then Pat Dolan took over and they went to a full-time set-up. I had a good job in the bank and wasn’t getting in and playing football … That’s how I ended up getting the move to Waterford.”

That switch came in 2004 – the same year that Waterford United lost the FAI Cup final 1-2 to Longford Town under somewhat controversial circumstances: “I think we were one up with five minutes to go. There were two balls on the pitch and it was a sickener, to be fair. At City, we lost to Derry when I was about 22 and I remember crying in the dressing room. I thought it was the lowest I ever felt, but it was fairly close that day with Waterford.”

Following a solitary season with the Blues, Alan joined Cobh Ramblers, spending the next four years at St Colman’s Park. The highlight of that period came in 2007, when he captained the side from midfield, to capture the First Division title, keeping 22 clean sheets and setting a then record of 77 points for the second tier.

“It was the best year I’ve had. We started badly and I think we lost the first two, then we went 27 games unbeaten. We had a great bunch of lads and trained very well … It was like playing matches, training was so competitive. When we started on that run, we got belief and then lost up in Finn Harps. I missed a penalty and was gutted afterwards, but then we won our next six, to see it out. The thing I remember most was Finn Harps on telly, for the second last game of the season. I couldn’t watch and turned it off. They dropped points and everyone was texting each other. We knew then, it was in our own hands.”

Topflight football lasted a single season for the Rams, but much worse ensued, when they were subsequently denied a First Division licence: “It happens to a lot of clubs … The finance side of things. I still think we had a strong enough team, but just didn’t have a good year. When we went down, Hendo (manager, Stephen Henderson) left and four or five of us from Cork followed him down to Waterford ... Ramblers went downhill after that. I don’t think they overstretched themselves, as we were probably the lowest paid players in the Premier Division. It just wasn’t sustainable and sad what happened in the end.”

Returning to the Regional Sports Centre in 2009, the Cork native stayed for two seasons during his second spell, which included a 1-3 reverse against Bohemians in the EA Sports Cup final and promotion aspirations dashed on both occasions: “UCD were very strong that time and playing attractive football under Martin Russell. They were ahead of everyone else and Monaghan had a great year, as well. I can’t put my finger on it, as we definitely had a team good enough to go up, but we just didn’t manage to do it somehow.”

Carey came full circle in 2011, re-joining Tommy Dunne’s Cork City the year they won the First Division on the final day, at Shelbourne’s expense. However, he’d already left the club at the midway point, bowing out of League of Ireland football for good and eventually linking up with Munster Senior League outfit Avondale United.

“I went through a full pre-season with City, but an injury I had just got worse and worse. Three months went by … I went to specialists and it wasn’t getting better. It came to the summer break, in June and I had a conversation with Tommy. He said: ‘You’re not much use to me, crocked.’ and I agreed. I didn’t want to pick up a wage, while being injured, so we decided to part ways. I was working with AIB at that period, it was getting harder to take time off and I also became a dad for the first time. I packed it in and Pat Scully at Limerick was on to me for a while, but I wasn’t fit yet. I told him I’d give him a shout when I was, but six months later I joined Avondale and only lasted about four weeks there.”