The Manchester derby: Daniel Taylor talks to Cork's Stephen Ireland, who has good reason to inflict defeat on United

Like most boys growing up in Co Cork, Stephen Ireland was a wannabe Manchester United player with posters of Roy Keane on his bedroom walls. His father was manager at Cobh Ramblers, where the wiry teenage Keane set out on his career, and Ireland would sit for hours in the social club at St Colman's Park listening to stories about the most famous player to wear the claret and blue shirt.

Many Manchester City players might want to keep their childhood affiliation to Old Trafford a secret, particularly with a Mancunian derby on the agenda today. Yet Ireland has a clear conscience as the two clubs prepare to renew hostilities at the City of Manchester Stadium.

"Everything has changed," he says. "I wouldn't say I hate Manchester United now but I don't have any affection for them any longer. Growing up, there was the Roy Keane thing and it was ingrained in me to support them. But that's long gone now."

His antipathy stems from his experiences as a 14-year-old when he was invited for a two-week trial at United and saw his chance to sign for Alex Ferguson. He lasted eight days and could not get out of Old Trafford quick enough.

"It's a completely different club to City with a completely different feel," he recalls. "There's not the same family feel or community atmosphere. It's too big, too many people, too many different parts. You could never remember everyone's names. They couldn't remember yours. It just didn't feel homely.

"I went straight from there to a trial with City and I knew straight away it was the club for me. It's much more of a family club. It's not easy for a 14-year-old coming over from Ireland but they bend over backwards to make all their youngsters feel settled.

"They would organise get-togethers where a member of staff would take us to the Trafford Centre or to play pool or tenpin bowling. They wanted us to know about Manchester outside of football. With United, there was nothing like that . . . They just left us in a hotel to the next morning and that was the end of it for them."

Five years on, City have good reason to be grateful for United's lack of hospitality. Ireland has a left foot that is more Liam Brady than Keane. His subtle range of passing and the way he caresses the ball have marked him as one of the Premiership's brightest prospects and, when Steve Staunton names his first Republic of Ireland squad, there will be a clamour for the 19-year-old.

He is also one of the more grounded professionals in the Premiership. At City they tell the story about how Ireland attended a supporters' club function with Joey Barton before Christmas. While the streetwise Barton joshed with some of the league's most demanding fans, Ireland blushed every time he was asked for his autograph. It had been, he later confessed, one of the most terrifying experiences of his life.

Yesterday, after his first interview, he was asked by the chairman John Wardle how it went and blew out his cheeks as though traumatised. Yet the shy exterior hides a steel will. In his mid-teens Ireland suffered from Osgood-Schlatter's disease, which affects the bones and is associated with growth spurts among young people. He could live with the swelling and pain below his knees but convincing potential employers it was no big deal was another matter.

He rolls his eyes when asked to recount all the times he has got on a plane at Cork airport on his A-Z of English football grounds. "At one stage or another I think I've been at every Premiership club, plus Celtic, and a few others. When I was 11 I had spells at Derby, Wolves and Nottingham Forest. After that there was Liverpool, Arsenal, plus many more."

His perseverance was rewarded with his first contract at City, followed by a new five-year deal last October. Ireland is now regarded as the club's finest passer and is hopeful Staunton will give him his chance. "I'm not sure if I'm ready just yet but there's only one way of finding out. Maybe I should look at the under-21s. I would just love to be involved in some form."

His only experiences so far would have left a more vindictive man permanently embittered.

"The under-18s were playing three games in two weeks and Brian Kerr did everything to get me there. I was trying to establish myself at City and it meant missing two academy games. But City said I should go if I was going to be playing.

"We played the first game in Cobh and I'd been told I would be involved but Kerr left me out of the squad and made me sit in the stand rather than on the bench. The same thing happened in the second game and I asked him if I could go back to Manchester. My fitness was suffering and I felt I was wasting his time and my time being there.

"I asked politely but it came out in the Irish papers that I was causing trouble. I was depicted as a bad boy, which I'm not, and the press sided with Kerr. He told me to get out of my tracksuit and out of the hotel and arrange to be picked up. And he said I would never play for Ireland again while he was involved."

Staunton, presumably, will put an end to that but Ireland is realistic enough to point out that he is still on a learning curve.

Today is his first Manchester derby and he has 43 people coming from Cobh to support him, many of whom have swapped allegiances from red to blue. He describes it as the biggest match of his life and, if he gets his way, United may regret those eight unhappy nights he spent in a strange hotel.

Guardian Service