McShane can earn his stripes with the high-flying Tigers

Paul McShane wasn"t in the humour for talking deep in the bowels of the Hogan Stand after Ireland"s workmanlike, uninspiring, but merited win over Cyprus at Croke Park the other night. Nothing wrong with that - footballers don"t have to talk to the media and likewise the media don"t have to talk to footballers. If only we took up that option more frequently our lives would be a whole lot easier. We don"t of course so half our working lives are spent sitting in hotel lobbies or standing outside dressing-rooms waiting for someone to accept or decline our invitation to share their words of wisdom with the general public via our various organs - of the newspaper variety! Sometimes they talk, sometimes the say no politely, sometimes they even use Joe Kinnear-style language to tell us where to go. All the time the wait for the yes or no contains an air of intrigue almost, the "will they or won"t they talk" never loses its appeal. McShane was a wanted man by the Sunday newspapers last Wednesday night simply because his new club Hull City were down to play West Ham on the Sabbath just passed. More interested in how he is faring at club level than how he had played against the Cypriots, adequately as it happened, there was a queue of expectant faces awaiting his arrival in what is known as the mixed zone. A recent invention, the mixed zone is an area in most big grounds where the players have to pass by the press or their way to their post-match activities. Getting through the mixed zone without interference from the media has become an art form in itself for players across the world. One well-known Irish player religiously pretends he is on his mobile phone - I know he"s pretending because it actually rang once when he was trying to fool us into believing he was involved in a deep conversation. Others like Shay Given will always stop even when the result is catastrophic, a sign of player mature enough to know the press will be there in the good times and the bad. Paul McShane, to be fair to him, has always been prepared to speak his mind, a trait that has landed him in trouble with his Sunderland boss Roy Keane on more than one occasion which probably explains his reluctance to talk last Wednesday night. Currently on loan at Hull City, McShane knows it is a time in his life when his actions need to speak louder than words. McShane is literally fighting for his club future right now. In order to convince Keane he has any part to play at the Stadium of Light he must prove his worth to the Hull Tigers and their manager Phil Brown. So far so good. On Sunday Hull City moved up to third place in the Premier League table, behind Chelsea and Liverpool, but ahead of the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United. They are also well ahead of Sunderland in both points gained and league position, a fact few people could have foreseen when Keane shipped McShane off to Hull at the start of the season. That, I suspect, is part of the reason why McShane declined the opportunity to talk about the land of the embattled Celtic Tiger or the flying Tigers from Hull last Wednesday night. He could easily have rubbed Sunderland"s noses in it simply because Hull are rubbing everyone else"s noses in it right now as they defy the commonly held belief that they would go straight back to the Championship like so many promoted sides before them in recent years. Instead Hull are sitting in a Champions League qualifying position in the Premier League table with the best start of any promoted team in the last 14 years. Can they maintain that form? Unlikely. No matter how much they are currently riding the crest of a wave it is hard to see a side so dependent on set pieces for goals playing in the Champions League next season. What is clear is that Hull may well survive in the Premiership, surely their only goal at the start of this unbelievable season. That theory is based both on their current form and the pragmatism of their manager Phil Brown who is clearly keeping his own feet and those of the likes of McShane on the ground. 'People were talking about bubbles bursting, but my simple answer to a bubble bursting is to blow another bubble,' said Brown after his team"s win against a West Ham side used to blowing bubbles on Sunday. It was a great quote from a manager who has developed a team prepared to work hard for each other and die for the cause on Humberside. That won"t be enough to win them the Premier League title, but it will keep them in the top flight of English football. It will also offer them enough money to sign Paul McShane on a permanent basis from Sunderland. When they do he might just start talking again. FOOTNOTE - Just a thought. The government are denying many of our old age pensioners their automatic right to a medical card to save something in the region of €100 million yet they have invested €189 million in a new Lansdowne Road stadium that we could easily have done without considering the success of international soccer and rugby at Croke Park. Put that theory to your local councillor when they come looking for your vote next year and watch them squirm! Cathal Dervan is chief sportswriter with the Irish Daily Star Sunday newspaper.