EXCLUSIVE: Trevor Carson, the forgotten mural man of Killyleagh

Words similar to the above may well have rung in the ears of a young Trevor Carson along with the familiar drone of his Granda’s well-travelled Skoda clocking up the miles. Little did either of them know during their meandering tours of Northern Irish football outposts that one day in their own sleepy County Down village of Killyleagh, a tribute to sporting greatness would continue to be a relentless reminder of unfulfilled dreams taunting him on his journeys home.

“Back home in my little village there’s been three internationalists, David Healy was one of them,” explains the Motherwell goalkeeper, also alluding to Hugh Henry Davey and Terry Cochrane. “There’s a big mural on a wall of them and when they did it over 10 years ago they left a big space for me. Even when they did the story on it in our local paper they wrote ‘a space has been left for current Sunderland goalkeeper Trevor Carson’ because I’d been in a couple of squads. Still the space is there. It’s right at the top of the estate where my mum lives so I drive by it every time I go see her. Little things like that play on your mind.”

The 15-feet high painting, created in 2006 by Deirdre McKenna and Tracey Gallaghy, may well have a member of the Carson clan come at it with a paintbrush in the near future. Indeed, there is likely a dusty roller hidden in a cupboard next to a pair of signed Peter Schmeichel’s gloves gifted by pal David Healy during his time at United that has been ready to be dipped into a pot of matt emulsion for some time now.

International recognition is nothing new to this goalkeeper, the kudos of a call up something which has followed him from club to club but without the sniff of a cap. But it’s his meteoric rise in profile that has accompanied his move to Lanarkshire that has thrust him ever closer to adorning the side wall of the terraced house which sits on Frederick Street. Arriving in the summer from cash-strapped Hartlepool United for the grand sum of £10,000, 13 clean sheets have followed along the way to a Betfred Cup final, a £375k rejected bid from Celtic in the January transfer window and a call up which will surely see him represent his country against South Korea at Windsor Park a week today.

“The manager [Stephen Robinson] sold it to me for a platform,” said Carson. “I’ve done well over the last four or five years wherever I’ve been. I was speaking to Michael McGovern the other day and he said ‘you’re flying up there’ and I just told him I’m not doing any better than I was before. It’s just the platform. If you do well you are in the spotlight all the time.

“Coming up here, my main reason was to get into the Northern Ireland squad, because I know what comes with it. You get a much bigger profile once you get that first cap. People always call me an international goalkeeper but I’m not. I’ve not had a cap despite being in loads of squads. That’s what I want, I’m an ambitious person. I want to go as high as a can and I know that it’ll make people stand up and notice me. That’s what coming here is doing.

“Things couldn’t have gone any better over the last six months. Obviously we’d like to be higher in the league but on a personal note I’ve done really well. Getting that cap will just be the icing on the cake. I’ve been in maybe a dozen squads and this time is the first time I’ve felt I’ve earned it. I’ll be going there with a different mind set that I have a right to be there and not just because someone has pulled out. Me being me, I was happy to go in because it was an honour. I have a different feeling about this one. It’s always been a lifelong dream.”

A dream shared between Carson and the man closest to his heart. Sitting alone on a gloomy morning just adjacent to the Fir Park tunnel, the former Hartlepool man's eyes light up with the power of a million 300watt floodlight bulbs when the conversation drifts to the reason he first became a goalkeeper. It’s a subliminal nudge from his Granda Ken, a former Glentoran shot stopper, that he has to thank for a guiding hand that continues to be felt in his life to this day.

“I fell into being a goalkeeper but my Granda was undoubtedly my biggest influence and has been throughout my career. None of my parents drove so he took me here, there and everywhere. I’d not be where I am now without him. I actually shed a tear at the [Betfred Cup] semi-final when we beat Rangers because he was over for it. We just looked at each other after it and I went. I’d not been used to playing in games like that at Hampden in front of 50,000 and the fact we won and he was there was very special.

“I have six brothers and sisters and when you go home they all hate going to his house because its just pictures of me playing football everywhere. They say ‘where’s me?’, they just wind him up. He tells me the last Northern Ireland game he went to was against Scotland and George Best was playing. He’s going to come next week in the hope I get my debut.

“My mum didn’t have two pennies to rub together when we grew up and I owe everything to him. It was him who managed to get the money together to send me to Leeds or Manchester for a week’s trial. The amount of miles he must have done in his wee Skoda over the years! It’ll be him who I’ll be thinking of if I get to walk out that tunnel.”

He added: “My Granda always told me about Pat Jennings. Mike Taylor who is the Northern Ireland goalkeepeing coach was the main guy when I was growing up. He always gave me inspiration as I think he holds the record for the oldest player to win his first cap at 27. I’m 30 so he always said to me ‘don’t stop believing’ and just to keep going. There were a couple of times where I broke my finger or got injured and you start to think you’re cursed. The older I got, I thought I’d missed my chance many times.”

The feeling of potential missed chances is something Carson can relate to on several fronts. Back in January, his name was the word on every Celtic fan’s lips as the Scottish champions came calling for his services two days before the window creaked closed. He is honest about the appeal of the potential move, which fell through as Celtic eventually turned to Scott Bain. However, the man from County Down shows no sign of lasting regret as he looks to a prosperous ending to the season with Motherwell, including another semi-final – this time against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup – and tomorrow’s Premiership visit of, yep, Celtic.

“It was a massive confidence boost,” he explains. “I felt a couple of feet taller for a few days but my head never really got turned. I’m an ambitious player and for the chance to go and play for a club like Celtic is obviously something that will appeal.

“The gaffer was 100 per cent honest and said ‘listen there are 48 hours of the window left and if Celtic come in with a bid we can’t reject we’ll let you go but at the moment we can’t get a replacement’. I totally respected the club’s stance and there’s obviously part of you that thinks you’ll never get that opportunity again, it could have been once in a lifetime.

“But you can’t think like that, you’ve just to take the positives out of it. I owe a lot to Motherwell, hence the reason I didn’t go in kicking doors down demanding to leave which a lot of players might have done. Motherwell don’t have a lot of money and people probably laugh they only paid about £10,000 for me, but I know how deep Alan Burrows [Motherwell's chief operating officer] had to dig for that.

“The best thing for me was that we had the game against Hibs on deadline day. I said to my agent and the gaffer ‘listen I’ve got a game so don’t ring me unless it’s to tell me I’m going to Celtic Park for a medical’ and that call never came.”

And Granda Ken?

“My Granda is always the pessimist and said ‘what if you don’t play and you’re not the character to sit on the bench’. You think fair enough but you have to back yourself. My Granda would have been gutted if I went and sat on the bench, so he’s delighted I stayed where I was.

“There were times where family were ringing asking but I didn’t know. I’m sure the Motherwell fans would understand it would have been a massive opportunity to potentially play Champions League football and go out in front of 60,000 but it didn’t happen. I have two and a half years left here and if I’m here for that or five years after that I’ll be happy at that.

"I love it here but the other side of me wants to go as high as a can.”

Hopefully, at the very least, 15 feet.