YOU CAN’T

Former rug cleaner Matt on carpet ride to the top flight

TWO years spent as a carpet cleaner did not prepare Matt Doherty for life in the Premier League.

But it sure as heck helped him deal with a staggering rejections – and inspired him to make it at Wolves.

This lunchtime, the Republic of Ireland international will make his fifth top-flight appearance of the season having never lost sight of the days when he worked for his dad for £200 a week.

He said: “I had 14 or 15 trials when I was younger. I didn’t play that well when I was over here. I would readily admit that now.

“I’d left school to go on so many trials. There wasn’t any point staying. I was away for one week at a time – so I just left.

“It was a risk I took at the time and it looked like it had backfired for a few years.

“I worked for my dad, doing whatever he said. He has his own carpet-cleaning company.

“It made me grow up and realise that it wasn’t what I wanted to do. And, of course, we’d have little chats in his van all the time.

“He’d say, ‘Maybe if you play in the League of Ireland and get across to England when you are 21, it might work’.

“Then a pre-season friendly game – when I played for Bohemians against Wolves – changed everything.

“Having said that, I didn’t set the world alight. I was alright. I only played 55 minutes. I don’t know why they took a chance. They must have done a favour for somebody or something.

“When the opportunity came around to come to England, people asked, ‘Are you homesick?’ I wasn’t.

“I was 18 and having spent two years with my dad had helped me grow up and mature and I was ready to come over when I did.”

Doherty, 26, is now the longest-serving first-team squad member on Wolves’ books having spent seven years at the club.

And it has been that long between his appearances in the Premier League, having played during the final days of Mick McCarthy’s spell in charge. Dubliner Doherty dropped down to League One and has bounced back up with a club with lofty ambitions.

He said: “The club has changed completely.

“The board has changed, the training ground has changed and so has the philosophy.

“We are all aware that the new owners mean business.

“They are looking for Wolves to go as high as the club can and as quickly as we can.

“It’s up to us, the players here at the moment, to produce for them because all of the stuff they are doing – the people they are bringing in and the training ground. They are backing us.

“I’ve seen the really tough times, like Mar 2016: Burnley 1 Wolves 1 Nov 2015: Wolves 0 Burnley 0 Apr 2013: Wolves 1 Burnley 2 Nov 2012: Burnley 2 Wolves 0 Mar 2010: Burnley 1 Wolves 2

Wolves – 64 wins Burnley – 36 wins Draws – 28