Stephen Hunt on John O'Shea: "After the week he's had, yesterday showed you can't take anything for granted in football although he's never been one to do that. To the outsider, it looked like John's path was easy. All the clubs wanted him and he went to Manchester United but if you think doing what he did was easy, then you will never understand professional football" (David Maher / SPORTSFILE)

I knew of John O'Shea before I knew him. We played for Waterford on the same Kennedy Cup side when we were 14. While we have a lot in common these days, back then there was as much that divided us.

John was a townie and I was a shy lad from the country. I saw John as a sophisticate and before I played with him, I played against him. We were 13 then, thought of nothing but football and we both shared a desperation to make it.

I was trying to make a name for myself but I was withdrawn and a little bit uncertain. John wasn't arrogant, but I guess he was regal. He was tall and had a presence on the pitch. Everybody knew about John, including, it seemed, all the scouts in England.

It would have been easy to be envious of this townie who had it made but you couldn't feel that way about John.

He had left his beloved Ferrybank to play for Bohemians in Waterford, driven by the belief that it would advance his career. If he was ambitious, it didn't show and the same is true today. You wouldn't know my friend has played for Ireland 100 times because he has always been modest. Last week, though, you might have sensed a bit of pride in his voice and he could be forgiven that after Gelsenkirchen.

As a kid, I took every opportunity to demonstrate my skills. Most of the defenders I came up against would make it easy for me, diving in and going to ground. I'd enjoy playing against them. John made it difficult. He stayed on his feet and he nearly always won the ball.

I had moved from Rathgormack to Johnville in Waterford city for the same reasons that John left Ferrybank and that was where we first played against each other. I scored 45 goals and we won the league.

I was a striker then and yesterday I played as a striker for Ipswich, making my first appearance of the season. It's funny how things go around. I left Johnville and went back to Carrick because I was a country boy. I also knew that there was a scout from Palace based there and I wanted to impress him. It was my last chance as I hadn't done it in the Kennedy Cup when shyness and nerves got the better of me.

After the week he's had, yesterday showed you can't take anything for granted in football although he's never been one to do that. To the outsider, it looked like John's path was easy. All the clubs wanted him and he went to Manchester United but if you think doing what he did was easy, then you will never understand professional football.

John entered a bearpit when he went to Old Trafford, a place where only the strongest survive. Alex Ferguson sent him on loan to Bournemouth to play men's football and then he went to Royal Antwerp before he had his breakthrough. When he started to make it at United, I was at the other end of the football food chain at Brentford. He would leave tickets for me whenever United played in London and I would watch those Premier League teams and vow to get to the same standard.

John told me last week he still has a pair of Brentford shorts I gave him, although I'm not sure why I did that.

He is popular in the dressing room because he takes the game seriously without being too serious. I remember when we were on holiday with our partners a few years ago, on the night Michael Jackson died. We ended up doing shots for Jacko and maybe even a few for Bubbles the Monkey as well. The hotel didn't throw us out, they probably understood that this was a solemn business although we both suffered the next day.

He is somebody you would turn to for advice in a tough situation, whether it is to do with football or not. We've always said that if we go into management, I'll be his assistant if he was a manager and vice versa, although it might look silly if I was manager at five foot nothing and my assistant was towering over me. But I know I can trust him. We've gone from the Kennedy Cup to owning horses together and we spend hours talking about football on the phone every week.

There aren't many people you keep in touch with in football despite the idea that a dressing room is full of mates. You move on, you lose touch. That's just the way it is but John O'Shea is one of a handful I will still call a friend when I retire.

These days we are two lads from Waterford who have played for our country and performed in the Premier League but the friendship is based on something else. It's based on those days when we were 13 and the game was all that mattered.

John made it to the top the right way and I'd like to think that, if I'm a friend of his, I did too.

Sunday Indo Sport