Good guy just letting the good times roll

ALL things come to those who wait could well be inscribed on Curtis Fleming's shaved dome. Hence, while most 27-year-olds might have given up hope of winning an international call-up, not him. Now, at last, everything is coming his way.

A week and a half ago he scored his first goal in 150 games for Middlesbrough. Last week he bought a new home. Next, up comes his belated inclusion in the Republic of Ireland squad. Marriage to long-time local girlfriend Lucy this June in Las Vegas, followed by fatherhood in late September are around the corner.

"Everything's happening. It's unbelievable," he says, in the same almost boyish Dublin accent he ever had. "Shock. Shock is the only word for it."

None of this will change him, and success won't faze him. Curtis Fleming remains one of life's quintessential nice guys, devoid of the trappings and aloof arrogance which success and money can bring to a young footballer. "I'm just thrilled to be there. It's frightening," he says disarmingly.

The word "quality" crops up more regularly but otherwise the only discernible change is the bald head, which prompted Aston Villa's Steve Staunton to follow the lead of others by dubbing Fleming `George Foreman'.

"I had dreadlocks about 18 months ago or more and they were doing my head in. I had to keep waxing them. The only way I could get rid of them was to get them all shaved off. So I just got used to the bald head and left it. Everyone says it looks all right. The mean look."

The mean look? Nab, it'll never work. He's still the same unprepossessing, unassuming young man he always was. Hence, there'll hardly be a more popular winner of an international cap, especially within the domestic game, should it come to pass against the Czech Republic.

Although the smart money is on Jeff Kenna and Denis Irwin being chosen as the wing-backs, given that so much experimentation and alterations will be forced on Mick McCarthy elsewhere, at least Curtis is there now. When it happens, you sense he'll be ready for it.

All things come to those wait? "Everything," he laughs. "I'm definitely used to it now, that's why I don't think I was panicking too much. People were saying `you're very relaxed about it' and I said `well, I've had to wait for a lot of things'. I think it's experience. You can take everything in your stride then."

Playing for the Republic of Ireland? "I don't think you give up hope. But I think Ireland, especially at full-back, have had some of the best in Europe so you know your chances are going to be limited. But once you're playing in the Premier League week-in, week-out you've always got a chance. So I just kept plugging away.

It is somehow appropriate that his call-up should come in the week that St Patrick's Athletic won their first title in six years, last time Fleming was their prized asset. "About 10 of them," relayed the news to him of St Patrick's league title via Pat Dolan's mobile in the Oriel Park bar on Friday night. "Once a Pat's man, you're always a Pat's man," he explains.

Amongst them were fellow ex-players such as Pat Nutsy Fenlon, Damien Byrne, John `Trapper' Tracey and, of course, Brian Kerr, the man who brought him to St Patrick's in the summer of `87. In the light of that 1990 title it seemed as if Fleming's legion of admirers might never get rid of him, for his vocation in life is full-time professional football.

"A pure footbballer" is how he is remembered fondly at Richmond Park, where his cultured distribution and sheer honest endeavour along the right were an inspiration. Eventually, in the summer of 1991 Lennie Lawrence completed the transfer of Fleming to Middlesbrough.

Promotion, relegation, a year in the First Division, promotion under Bryan Robson and an injury plagued season in the Premiership have been his fluctuating lot ever since. "It's all about having the confidence to know that you're good enough to play in the league. It took me a long time to have self-belief."

"You come over and you think you're lucky to be here but you're not lucky because if you can't do the job they wouldn't keep you here. It's just age and experience.

Improved positioning, fitness and tackling were augmented by an unlikely switch to left back at the outset of last season following the arrival of Neil Cox, an even bigger surprise to Fleming than those of us who couldn't recall him doing anything of note with his left foot. But if Robson said he was good enough to play there that was good enough for Fleming and he admits that adapting to a less defensive wing-back role in the 3-5-2 system employed this season was a bigger obstacle for a player who was perhaps a little more conservative than he should have been.

Alas, a torn thigh muscle in February of last year effectively sidelined him for a year after he was prematurely rushed back into the team over the hectic Christmas programme. The prognosis looked particularly bleak when the Brazilian World Cup winner Branco was brought to Middlesbrough recently.

"I thought well he (Robson) is after getting him (Branco) in, I'm struggling now but I've come in and I've done okay and the gaffer has proved that by just leaving me there on merit." Robson has extolled Fleming's virtues publicly, describing him as the team's most consistent player in the last five games.

Fortunately, McCarthy even attended last Saturday week's defeat to Wimbledon, when he might even have been deluded into thinking that Fleming scores those kind of goals (a curling right-footer from the edge of the area bent inside the far post) on even a semi-regular basis.

"I tell you what, that was unbelievable as well. As rare as a Conservative by-election win they said on Match of the Day. I'm not into politics but I knew what they meant. I was happy with it."

If McCarthy is inclined to blood Fleming this Wednesday, "even for ten minutes I can't do anything more than give it 120 per cent." In that, like much else, he hasn't changed one percentage point.