City new-boy David Mooney was busily looking forward to a reunion with his Dublin schoolboy pal Wes Hoolahan today as Bryan Gunn's latest loan recruit settled swiftly into his new surroundings.
Certainly his feet have barely touched the ground over the last 48-hours after Gunn caught a first-hand glimpse of the 24-year-old at work on Wednesday afternoon with that hat-trick in Reading Reserves' demolition of their Crystal Palace counterparts.
His feet will be off the ground altogether this evening as the on-loan Royals striker is asked to dip into his own pocket for the air-fare to Manchester ahead of tomorrow's clash at Blackpool. It was either that or sit ina coach for seven hours on a Friday night.
Welcome to Norwich…
“Things weren't working out great at Reading,” said Mooney, stuck in a lengthy queue behind the likes of the Doyles, the Longs, the Hunts and the Litas of this world.
“So to be given the chance to come here to such a big club is a big opportunity for me,” he added.
His hopes of making an instant impact at the Madejski after last summer's switch from Cork City have not been helped by a few niggling injuries – the last of which limited his loan spell at Stockport County to just two games.
“It doesn't help,” he admitted. “But when you've got lads in front of you who are in form and scoring goals, it's obviously going to be hard to break into the team.
“But when I got the phone call from the Gaffer here [Gunn], it was a chance that I wanted to jump at.”
The fact that the City chief was following John Deehan's hot tip and parking himself in the crowd on Wednesday afternoon came as news to Mooney – even if he knew that he was a mared man. The word was spreading that he might be allowed out to play.
“I only found out after the game that I think there was seven or eight clubs watching, but I think the deal was done nearly straight after the game – I just got the phone call to say that the deal was done and I was on my way out of Reading to come here for a month.”
Given that initial, short time-scale – and the small matter of the fact that he scored that hat-trick in midweek – the suspicion remains that he will be at least on the bench at Bloomfield Road tomorrow.
At least. Because despite being a decent, six-foot one-inch tall himself it appears that playing off a Carl Cort is his ideal position. Up close and he's not as bulked out as a Cort or a Dublin; he is their foil, first and foremost.
“That would be the way that I'd like to play,” he said. “I'm quite tall myself, but I wouldn't be the most physical man to get involved in all that.
“But if he was winning flick-ons I'd chase them in all day – and, hopefully, get one or two goals.”
Gunn had done his homework – done his 'due diligence', it seems. “I think they rang Leroy [Lita] on Wednesday to speak about me,” Mooney said.
“I haven't got a clue what he said about me – hopefully, good things. But whatever he said, I'm sure it went down well because the move happened.”
All of which, of course, ensured a reunion with our Wesley.
“We're not from too far away in Dublin,” said Mooney. “And I saw him playing when he was in Ireland; then he went over to Scotland with Livingston.
“But he's done well with his career; he's rose up through the league. So when you look at him doing well; Kevin [Doyle] at Reading who has set the world on fire since he's come over here, it gives you that bit of grit in your teeth to come over and do well.
“I haven't been given any real chance at Reading so that's why I'm hungry to come here and do well.”
And pay for his own air flight tonight? “I don't know,” he laughed. “They haven't hit me yet for that one…”
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