SLOW living. This is life in the Premier League now.

Matt Doherty should be preparing for the visit of Everton to Molineux this afternoon.

He should be bang in the middle of that manic period of the season where titles are won and lost, heroes and villains are made.

He should be starting to think about tickets to the Europa League final in Gdansk for his family.

Instead, he’s at home like everyone else.

“We have two kids here, so I guess we’re occupied for a lot of the time,” he says.

“Two-and-a-half and one-and-a-half. So they’re at the stage where they can open doors, get down the stairs, so you’ve got to keep an eye on them all the time.

“You kind of get yourself into a bit of a routine daily, even it’s the smallest routine, just to keep a bit of structure in your day.

“You’re so used to having a routine with training, so it’s different, but I’m surviving, it’s not much of a problem.”

Doherty has been a standout star in another standout season for Wolves.

The Swords native celebrated his 250th appearance for the Old Gold with a precious goal in a 3-2 win at Tottenham last month.

Was it really just last month?

Wolves were in sixth, two points off a Champions League spot (if Manchester City’s ban is upheld) and in the last-16 of the Europa League when the season was put on ice.

Now there’s only uncertainty.

“You don’t know. You don’t even have a date of when you’re going to return,” says the 28-year-old.

“You don’t have a date of when you can really leave the house properly.

“So it is difficult to look forward, but I know it will finish at some point, hopefully it’s not too long.

“It was looking very exciting with nine games to go in the league, but when we get back playing that excitement won’t be there because there won’t be any fans in the stadiums.

“There won’t be any atmosphere.

“Health comes first and whenever we do get back out there we just have to make sure that, even though it will be different, we still have to do the job and stay professional.”

He knows from experience.

Wolves’ last game was the 1-1 draw with Olympiacos played in an empty stadium near Athens just before the shutters came down on sport worldwide in March.

For now the hustle and bustle of Super Sunday has become time in the garden with partner Nikkea and daughters Nya and Sia.

Match of the Day has been replaced by online quiz night with his family in Swords.

“I think my sister Rachel won the last one after a play-off, she’d be the smartest one,” he says, risking recriminations from his other four sisters and one brother — not to mention his parents Tom and Joni.

Family and faith have played a big part in his rise to the top.

“Our whole family are Born-Again Christians. That is something as a family we believe in and carry forward,” he says.

“It’s definitely something that I go back to and lean on in a lot of situations.

“I don’t get to practice it that often. My dad does all the practicing back home with the family. So whenever I’m back home I jump back into it.

“I still do little bits and pieces here and there for myself. I believe in it, so I still carry out some parts of it.”

Doherty is the longest-serving member of the current Wolves squad — having been at the club through eight different managers and a change of ownership.

He made his debut against Doncaster way back in 2011 under Mick McCarthy, before a couple of brief loan spells at Hibs and Bury.

Since then, he’s been ever-present throughout Wolves’ rise from League One to European football.

If the surroundings have changed, Doherty’s drive hasn’t.

“It’s not changed my attitude. I’ve always had the same attitude, always want to go as far as you possibly can,” he says.

“All the players have changed, except for me — I know Conor Coady has been here for a while also.

“I’m the only one who has been here since the League One days and still contributing, still playing, not just here.

“I’m not in the stands, I’m not part of the squad and they can’t get rid of me, I’m actually playing games.

“That fills me with great pride.”

The story of his move to England is the stuff of comic books.

Doherty had 15 unsuccessful trials across the water and was in the reserves at Bohemians before his sliding doors moment came in July 2010.

McCarthy brought Wolves to Dalymount for a pre-season friendly as part of the Stephen Ward deal a year earlier and Pat Fenlon threw Doherty into a makeshift side.

Wolves scout Willie Byrne and McCarthy liked what they saw and a few weeks later he was at Molineux.

He’s never looked back.

“It was something like 15 trials, but I never really performed that well when I was over there,” he says. “It wasn’t a huge surprise that I didn’t go away based on my actual trials. I just didn’t perform, the standard and the pace of it.

“That probably worked in my favour when I went over at 18 (to Wolves), my body was sharper to the speed of things.”

It was another ex-Belvedere defender Leigh Swords who missed out on that famous pre-season friendly with injury — which opened the door for Doherty.

“I haven’t (ever discussed it with him),” he says. “You lose contact over time. Leigh Swords at the time was probably one of the best right-backs in the country.

“I was half a centre-back at the time, it was all a bit flukey.”

10 years ago he was working for €200-a-week for his dad at the family carpet cleaning business.

Last year he signed a new four-year deal at Wolves believed to be worth in the region of €55,000 a week.

“It made me realise what hard work was. And what I didn’t want to do,” he says.

“Probably made me realise the path that I wanted to take. I know the opportunity I got was kind of by fluke or by chance, but I guess the work I had done with my dad made me knuckle down when I came across and really grasp the opportunity I was given.”

His dad Tom has been filling him in on what to expect from new Ireland manager Stephen Kenny.

“My dad is from Sligo, a big Sligo Rovers fan, always has been,” he says. “He did say that the teams that Stephen Kenny has had play good football, attacking football. I trust my dad’s opinion on it.

“Hopefully he does a great job for us. We all want to qualify.

“I know he’s done a fantastic job for the 21s and in the League of Ireland, so I’m looking forward to working with him.”

Doherty’s mother Joni is Dutch and when he was being overlooked by Martin O’Neill there was a suggestion he might declare for the Netherlands.

“I wasn’t playing for Ireland at the time, so I doubt I was going to play for Holland at the time,” he says, laughing.

His time in green under O’Neill was limited and their relationship strained at times.

There has been no contact with O’Neill since the heated phone call following the Derryman’s exit from the Ireland job.

“No, nothing,” he says. “Those days are long gone. I think everyone has moved on and is living their life peacefully.”

He cut a much happier figure under McCarthy and Kenny has already indicated that Doherty will be a key part of his new-look Ireland side.

Under Nuno Espirito Santo at Wolves, the 28-year-old has blossomed into one of the Premier League’s most potent wing-backs.

Before lockdown he’d hit the net eight times for his club this season, between the league and in Europe.

He also scored against Denmark at the Aviva in the 1-1 draw last November that sent Ireland into the play-offs for next year’s rescheduled Euros.

“That was a difficult night because we didn’t qualify, but performance-wise I was happy with my performance and happy with the team’s performance,” he says.

“I think it was a positive night for Irish football even though we didn’t qualify.”

Doherty began his footballing education at Swords Celtic at an early age, before moving on to the hothouses of Home Farm and Belvedere.

It was there that he first came into contact with his future Ireland teammates Robbie Brady and Jeff Hendrick in the DDSL and as part of Ireland underage squads.

“They were Kevin’s and there was always this rivalry. We’d win the league one year, they’d win the all-ireland,” he says.

“It was always really competitive, the standard was good. I grew up playing with Robbie (Brady) and Jeff (Hendrick) and also John Egan, Shane Duffy. I’m very close to Seamus Coleman now.

“There’s a good bond.”

He can see similarities with the camaraderie in both the Ireland and Wolves camps.

“Very similar. There’s no egos in either dressing room. Nobody is big time or anything like that,” he says.

Humour plays a big part for both squads.

“(At Wolves) Romain Saiss cut my socks, so what I did was I cut into his boxers,” he says.

“He told me that he was driving home, when he felt something didn’t feel right. So he pulled over and checked his boxers and there was a big hole in the middle of them.

“That’s the type of thing that happens. If something gets done to you, you always have to try and think of getting one back.

“Somebody with Ireland put loads of sweets and chocolate bars in my bed. So when I went to bed, I found all this under the covers.

“I thought I’d got rid of it all, and then as I was falling asleep I found a load of Jaffa Cakes under the pillows.

“I never found out who that was…”

Doherty shed nearly a stone after Santo joined the club and went pescatarian as part of a new fitness regime.

Gone are the sweets and fizzy drinks. Gone too are trips to his favourite chipper back in Swords.

“The Fingal. I used to eat there every Sunday. When I was growing up, that’s where everyone in the estate, everybody I’d know would go there,” he says.

As the top performing Irish player in the Premier League for the last two seasons, he can also now stake the claim as the most famous Swords person around.

More famous than Ed Byrne, Kieran Duff, Paul Flynn, Sinéad Finnegan and Kodaline combined.

Even more famous than Ronan Keating...

“Ah, I think he’s more famous than me,” he says.

But for now the spotlight is off. For now the stage is empty.

Doherty’s learning to live at a slower pace again and dreaming of the simple pleasures. Like when his local golf course might open again.

“The parks are open, I’m running past people and thinking... on a golf course I’d be 400 yards away from the next person,” he says, laughing.

“So in my head I’m half praying that they will open soon enough, which I don’t think will happen.

“We’ll get back to normality at some point, we just have to make sure it’s the right time.”

DAVID COUGHLAN

This article originally appeared in the Irish Daily Star on April 25, 2020