Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Alks to Tiernan Lynch’s latest high-profile signing THOMAS STEWART ng won medals at home and ad, Larne’s striker es to continue d at Inver Park
things with them, other options came along and I just pursued different opportunities at different moments and that’s what I have done throughout my career.
“But coming in and playing for a team which had huge success like Linfield, and to play for David Jeffrey and for people like that to put a lot of confidence in you, that was great.” Always ready to seize on opportunities to further his career and broaden his horizons, Stewart departed Windsor after two years for Derry City, and then onwards to Shamrock Rovers for the first of two spells at Tallaght Park, the pinnacle of which arrived in 2010 when Michael O’neill ended the Hoops’ 16-year wait for the title. After spurning the advances of the Scottish national team yesterday, the Northern Ireland manager’s stock has never been higher among his countrymen and Stewart knows first hand how much the current crop of international players must enjoy playing under him.
“Michael (with Thomas above) was great. He’s a good manager, has good man-management skills with the players and he’s just one of those guys who just lets you play, he gave you the freedom to go out and play,” said Stewart.
“He’s tactically very good as well obviously and he’s not the manager of Northern Ireland for no reason.”
Stewart spent an unhappy season at Patrick Thistle in between his two stints in Dublin, before taking the biggest leap of faith in his career when he moved over to the US, spending threeand-a-half years in California with Sacramento Republic before moving
north to Canada for a fourmonth spell with Ottawa Fury. “I loved it out there,” said Stewart, whose compatriots and former Irish League contemporaries Albert Watson and Daryl Fordyce also play Stateside.
“It’s really good, a lot of people don’t give it credit for what it is but I was delighted to get the opportunity to go and play out there. There were some exciting matches and America has all the facilities and all the plans in place to be great.
“I think they are just spoilt for choice with so many different sports, but I gave it my best and I was delighted to win something in my first year and it’s a place I’m very fond of.
“I won the championship in the first year which was a big thing for a team which had never kicked a ball before because it was just a new team, and we went from nothing to having 20,000 fans every week so it was a great experience.”