SOCCER INTERVIEW:DAMIEN DUFF may not have had too much to smile about over the past year or so but as he contemplated life in the Premier League with a new club and, of course, the build up to this weekend's World Cup qualifier in Nicosia, the 30-year-old seemed more than happy, writes EMMET MALONE

The move to Fulham brings an end to a difficult spell at Newcastle where the Dubliner, who arrived home early yesterday for a Lucozade Sport promotional event, never came close to meeting the expectations of fans who had celebrated his arrival from Chelsea back in 2006.

Duff went to the north east with high expectations, he says, but his relief at departing is obvious. Fulham, he observes, feels a little like Blackburn, while Newcastle, you sense, was quite unlike anywhere else in the upper echelons of the professional game. “I think it was the right time to call it a day,” he says of his decision to leave. “There were a million and one reasons – obviously the Championship was one of them. I’m not getting any younger. I’m 30 now and I want to play in the Premier League.”

But does the decision to go there in the first place seem like a major blunder now? “Well, it’s all very well in hindsight. At the time it was a very exciting move – I thought so, anyway.

“With Newcastle you always think exciting football and great fans. I went there thinking it would work out great. It obviously hasn’t and it’s very disappointing.

“I could have stayed at Chelsea, picked up my dough and taken a chill pill, really. I made a big decision. Sometimes in life they don’t work out. I’ve made another one now to go back to the Premier League.”

Having retained a home in London, things have worked out rather well for the Dubliner but, he insists, there was never any question of wanting to get to the bright lights of the big city.

“It’s not the London thing,” he says. “Wherever I am playing my football I spend most of my time in my house – so I could be in Siberia for all it matters. It’s nothing to do with lifestyles or anything like that. It’s a short career. I live for football and I do everything right, so I just rest at home. It’s nothing to do with waltzing down the King’s Road or anything like that.”

Asked about the player’s relegation with Newcastle back in June, Giovanni Trapattoni dutifully played the whole issue down, maintaining somehow that Duff would not suffer at all from playing at the lower level.

The Italian is bound to be pleased by the winger’s return to the top flight, however, and Duff is hoping the more stable environment, the influence of a manager he has long held in high esteem as well as the chance to play European football again will all help him to stay fit and rediscover his best form on the international stage.

“It’s been an all right 18 months or so, injury-wise, to be fair, but the only big games I’ve seemed to miss have been the competitive ones for Ireland. It would be nice to put that right and put in some performances.

“And it would be good to score some more goals. I’m definitely due one (he hasn’t scored in 17 internationals), it would be nice in the next three games. You don’t have to hit me with stats. I’m overdue a goal, it’s not rocket science. More goals and to get to a World Cup (are the targets), I suppose.”

Automatic qualification, he maintains, is still within the team’s capabilities, although it will almost certainly require a win in Nicosia, where Ireland were subjected to a night of humiliation when they last visited three years ago. “Yeah, it’s a double motivation, I suppose. A massive motivation to put the game right from a couple of years back and even bigger still to get the three points for the group stages.

“I don’t think you go into any game really thinking you’re going to concede five goals. But what was it, 2-2 at half-time? Yeah, and I just remember coming out for the second half thinking we were going to go on and win it, which couldn’t have been further from the truth.

“Obviously it is a tough place to go, you can see from the results they’ve had there – Italy only scraped it early on in the group stages but nevertheless it was a shocking result, we got slaughtered – and rightly so.

“From what I remember of the goals, though, there were quite a lot of individual errors so hopefully, there won’t be any of those this Saturday and we can go on and win the game.

“I’m looking forward to it and I’m sure the lads who were there a few years ago are looking forward to it, to put that right, although I think our biggest motivation has to be from the World Cup qualifying point of view, to get the three points.”