Alan Blayney was only 16 when he was whisked from the South Belfast Boys League to Southampton. Treading a path made famous by George Best, the teenager became homesick, went home but then came back. Just after his 21st birthday – by which time he had signed pro, been out on loan and won the first of his six Under-21 caps – his prospects were evaluated, in the match-day program, by the club’s goalkeeping coach, David Coles, who explained why he was “excited about his chances”.

Alan had natural ability and a willingness to learn; was a hard, determined worker and very brave; and could “kick the ball for miles and throw it three-quarters of the way upfield.”

None of which earned him a start until May 2004, when Antti Niemi was ill and Paul Smith injured. The highlight of his performance in a 3-3 draw with Newcastle was a downward save from Alan Shearer’s header that was likened to Gordon Banks’s famous save from Pelé and scooped the “Sky Sports Save of the Season Award”.

Yet, the following season, he featured in only two games, the second one a wretched 5-2 League Cup defeat at Watford. Although he wasn’t blamed, Blayney felt that his “confidence went of the window,” so he had no complaint when Kasey Keller was borrowed from Tottenham, pending Niemi’s return. Further loan spells followed until he was sold to Doncaster, much against his will for a fee of £50,000. He explained “I was home for a summer break when a phone call came through. It was Sir Clive Woodward, the former Lions coach who was a technical support director at the club, who said, ‘We have sold you to Doncaster for £50,000’. My response was, ‘Do I not have any say in this?’ He said the deal was done

but I didn’t want to live in Doncaster. I loved it at Southampton.

I didn’t settle in Doncaster, they gave me an apartment but it was a tip. If I was getting those wages now I would bite your arm off but then it felt I wasn’t getting much and it was a terrible time”. Although he won his first full cap while he was there, Alan left Doncaster prematurely, feeling “a bit disillusioned with the game”. After a couple of stand-in stints with Oldham and Bohemians, he returned to Northern Ireland, first with Ballymena and then with Linfield. In his first season with them, Linfield won the Irish League and Cup double, but he had to settle for the League title alone in the next two seasons. Having captained the side to their 2010-11 title, he was voted Ulster’s Footballer of the Year and was capped five times by Northern Ireland.

But that was as good as it was going to get. He contracted a mysterious muscle disease called rhabdomyolysis which he told the Belfast Telegraph in 2017 nearly killed him and he never felt he recovered 100%. He eventually hung up his gloves in October 2018 but by then he long been helping his wife, a florist run their flower business based in Newtownabbey.