Darren Quigley had given up on football. The insecurity of the Airtricity League finally broke his resolve and he was ready to walk away from it all at the tender age of 24.
Lightning struck twice for the talented keeper after his contracts with Derry City and then Sporting Fingal were ripped up following the two clubs’ failure to avoid the familiar financial pitfalls.
He had had enough and craved a simpler life, where his wages were paid on time and his future was not in doubt. So, the former Manchester City trainee decided to plan for a career away from football.
It wasn’t as if the Dubliner was short on offers as five clubs were all keen on him. But the love of the beautiful game had faded away and his focus was now on breaking into the fire brigade.
‘I took the decision to give football a rest for a year. I was disheartened after what happened at Derry and Fingal, but I also had a mortgage and a young baby to take care of,’ Quigley told Sportsmail.
‘My heart wasn’t in the job and I decided to put football on the back foot as I searched for a proper nine-to-five job.
‘I needed to think long term, but it’s not a great time to be looking for work. I applied for the fire brigade, did the interview and the aptitude test, but I’m still on the list
waiting for the call. Maybe it will happen, but everywhere has taken cutbacks, so it’s difficult.
‘I wasn’t having much success in the job hunt and I went up a pound or two as I had lost that motivation. Then Pat [Devlin] got in touch and asked me to come down to Bray Wanderers.’
As he was living in Greystones and the only player still without a club following Fingal’s shock demise, Quigley felt that he had nothing to lose by linking up with the Seagulls.
Surprised by the professionalism on his first training session, he agreed to sign up for the season. However, he has not abandoned the job hunt outside football and is eyeing up an apprenticeship with ESB.
Having lined out for the Republic of Ireland B team five years ago, the agile shot-stopper probably would have laughed back then if you told him that he would be the back-up keeper at Bray at this stage of his career.
Nevertheless, he is trying to stay upbeat and one of the things helping him to do that is coaching kids through the Just4Keepers company. That work brings the excitement of football all rushing back.
‘When I first started with Just4Keepers it was just a hobby and I coached two or three kids in the first few months. Now I’m coaching 35-40 keepers and it’s great,’ he said.
‘I’ve taken a lot out of football, so it is a way of giving something back. I’ve had a kid [Tommy Dunne] recently go on trial with Aston Villa, Blackburn and Birmingham and that’s brilliant.
‘Another lad [Ian McLoughlin] has gone on to play for the Ireland Under 21s and is now with Ipswich. But I get as much of a reward out of an eight-year-old telling me that he saved a penalty.’
The ex-UCD man insists that his top priority is finding steady employment, but there is still a chance that he could follow some of the kids he is coaching and earn a move to England.
Bray boss Devlin certainly thinks that it’s possible and told Quigley that if he displaces first-choice keeper Matt Gregg and impresses then it may just ‘open up some doors’.
At 24, he is still relatively young for a keeper and the example of Brian Murphy, who left Bohemians to join Ipswich in the Championship last year at the age of 26, proves that time is on his side.
For now though, Quigley is taking things step by step. The passion for football has started to return following his move to the Carlisle Grounds, while the job search keeps him busy when Bray are out of action.
The period of self-doubt has passed along with the cloud of uncertainty that hovered over the league, but he is taking nothing for granted anymore and continues to strive for that sense of security, on and off the field.