You’re a craggy centre-half and captain, your workforce is dropping 4-0 within the Cup and the opposition sends a 13-year-old into battle with half an hour to go — how do you reply?
This was the place Dollingstown skipper Paddy Mooney discovered himself in final week at Mourneview Park, the place the Premier Intermediate League workforce had been enjoying Glenavon within the BetMcLean League Cup.
Little did he know he was enjoying in an historic sport, as teenage sensation Christopher Atherton smashed the UK file for the youngest participant ever to play senior soccer — one which had stood for 42 years.
Atherton made nationwide headlines and there was subsequently a lot debate about whether or not a 13-year-old ought to ever be enjoying senior soccer.
There may be an apparent danger of damage in any sport, however how ought to the schoolboy’s opponents react — do they deal with him with child gloves or play their regular sport?
Former Warrenpoint and Newry Metropolis defender Mooney instructed Sunday Life Sport his emotions on a record-breaking encounter in Mid Ulster.
“He got here on and he was absolute high quality,” declares the Dollybirds skipper. “He definitely didn’t play like a 13-year-old, he was very, superb and clearly has the potential to go throughout the water.
“We had heard there was a 13-year-old on the bench for Glenavon. The sport didn’t go in our favour, we had been 4-0 down when he got here on with about half an hour to go.
“If issues had been tighter, I don’t assume Gary (Hamilton) would have thrown him in however we had been out of the tie when he got here on, and he did rather well.
“He got here on as a winger, to play off the entrance man, and his recent legs actually helped. It doesn’t matter what age you might be, recent legs at all times provide you with a bonus.
“He bought an help when his cross pressured a save out of our keeper and Matthew Snoddy was there to complete it off.
“Honest play to Gary, he had confidence within the lad and I don’t assume he misplaced the ball the entire time he was on.
“I wouldn’t say we couldn’t get close to him, however he was very, superb.”
Within the days since Atherton’s look, there have been query marks over how the younger lad would deal with the bodily side of the senior sport, however Mooney maintains the teenager didn’t cling again.
“He simply seems like several 13 or 14-year-old,” concedes Mooney. “He’s not a very large lad and he has a slim physique form, however he was backing into our gamers and didn’t get thrown about, so he had first rate energy.
“At 18, even at 16, their physique shapes are completely totally different as a result of they spend all their time within the health club, they're athletes at that age today.
“Once I was that age I used to be nowhere close to a health club, all I needed to do was play soccer, however in the event you go shoulder to shoulder with the younger lads today, you understand all about it. They're stronger, fitter and sharper than we had been.
“We didn’t speak an excessive amount of about him straight after the sport, it was extra on Wednesday when it got here out that he was the youngest participant ever to play senior soccer within the UK, that’s when it started to sink in.
“We had been extra embarrassed about dropping the sport 6-0! Then we had been getting stick from our mates and households — ‘Did you get the runaround from a 13-year-old?’, that type of stuff.”
Younger Atherton was not subjected to the darkish arts of the sport on his senior debut, with Dollingstown realizing they had been out of the tie when the child got here on they usually weren’t curious about shaking him up.
“I’m a 31-year-old centre-half, I don’t significantly need youngsters operating rings round me on the pitch, I don’t assume any participant would really like that,” states Mooney. “I don’t pull out of tackles, so I used to be type of completely happy that he was nowhere close to me and I’m glad I didn’t need to sort out him.
“The sport was over so there was no want for naughty tackles however Dollingstown should not the dirtiest of groups.
“I’m undecided how it will be if he got here up towards a number of the harder groups within the sport, there may be a number of jealousy on the market and a few perhaps wouldn’t go straightforward on him.
“If I used to be a supervisor or a coach, I wouldn’t have performed him in a senior sport. Sure, perhaps play him an age up, perhaps with the Underneath-16s, however senior soccer...Me personally? I believed it was loopy.
“It’s good for the lad, good for Glenavon and good for the Irish League. There have been whispers after the sport that some high golf equipment are in for him, and I want him all the perfect in his profession.
“I couldn’t consider he was approaching however honest play to Gary and the lad himself, he was spectacular. Once I was 13, the very last thing I used to be fascinated with was enjoying first-team soccer, so it’s wonderful that Christopher really did it.
“Was he nervous? Not a little bit of it. I used to be extra nervous than he was on the pitch!”