He could have gone anywhere at all and yet he chose the jagged white Madjeski Stadium that rises up from the ground off a roundabout a few miles outside Reading, there to check out the possible future of his Ireland attack in the guise of a skinny blond lad who was having trouble even holding down a place in the St Pat's side when Staunton kicked his last ball in a green jersey.

But then, this is the kind of thing that routinely happens to Kevin Doyle these days so maybe it's not that big a deal.

On a scale of the weirdly wonderful, this was clearly just next on the list. Because if he's proof of anything, it's that life doesn't always have to treat you like dirt. Sometimes life takes you out for a nice meal, shows you a good time and even respects you in the morning. As for happy ever afters? Well, one fairy tale at a time.

"This whole thing wasn't something I could have believed three years ago, " he says. "I could possibly have dreamed it but I'd never have believed it. I couldn't even have said it, not even to myself. Because it just wasn't a possibility that I'd considered. Three years ago, I was just coming up on my second year at St Pat's. To go from there to here in that space of timef I don't know, it just wasn't an option I didn't think. Like, imagine I'd said to somebody three years ago what was going to happen to me. They'd have laughed at me and said, 'Yeah, right, f**k off with yourself, would you?'

But it's been Roy Of The Rovers stuff this past while. I just hope it continues like that."

So here he is. A young Irish soccer player as yet unspoilt by stardom, the kind of lad that feels bad about the apprentices at Reading having to clean his boots for him.

He's still Wexford to the bone as well . . . the father played inter-county under-21 hurling and mother camogie . . .

and not only does he swear he was the first man on the pitch at Croke Park when Larry O'Gorman held the sliotar in his hand at the end of the 1996 All Ireland final, he has a piece of the sacred turf at home in his bedroom for posterity.

We're speaking in the Atrium bar in the Madjeski Hotel attached to the stadium, the hangar-high ceiling and oh-so modish lunch menu pointers to a club that knows it's going places. Opportunity is knocking for Reading and boy is it intent on being well-dressed when the door opens. That it will . . . barring a collapse that would make Devon Loch get up and canter home . . . is due in no small part to Doyle and his 11 goals. Reading are nine points clear of Sheffield United in second place and, more importantly, 21 clear of Leeds in third. They've conceded fewer and scored more than everyone else in the division.

They're going to the Premiership and so, astonishingly, is Doyle.

It's difficult to overstate just how unlikely a story his rise is. He ticks almost none of the boxes. He never went to England for a trial as a teenager because, although he got offers, he just didn't think he'd like it. Not only did he stay in school, he loved it. Did his Leaving Cert in 2001. Did well. A handy Gaelic footballer with Adamstown, he got called up to the Wexford under-21 panel when he was 17 but figured he'd give the soccer a go and went to St Pat's. But then he couldn't stand Dublin. Found himself to be a young country lad in an old city team. Spent the first year wondering what he'd let himself in for.

"I was living in Dublin for the first time, living away from home and I didn't really like it there. To be honest, I hated it. Getting to training every day, the traffic just did my head in altogether.

But part of that was me being a kid from the country who didn't know anything as well.

Like, training was in Baldonnel in the evenings and in Lucan if we were training in the morning. And for my first year, I was living with a friend in Clontarf. Sure I may as well have been living in Wexford, the length of time it took me getting to training. An hour and a half there and an hour and a half back.

"It took me until the second year to get a bit of brains. I moved to Lucan and by then, I was really enjoying it. And then Pat Dolan went to Cork and asked me to go with him.

In fairness, I did take a bit of convincing because I was just starting to really get the hang of Dublin and St Pat's. I'd never even been to Cork except in the back of a bus heading to a St Pat's away game and all I could think of the first time he asked me was that Cork was a million miles away from everywhere and that the away trips would be murder. But Pat can be very convincing and after a week or two, I felt it was home. I had friends there who were at college or whatever so I pretty much loved it from the start."

He'd made the Ireland under-20 squad by this stage and went to the World Youth Championships with them.

His time in Cork couldn't have gone better, either. He loved the city, loved the club.

There's a league medal sitting in an office back there for him now, although he couldn't go to the official function when they were being handed out. He'll remedy all that at the end of his season by going back to a league match some Friday night.

"There's actually no better place in Ireland to play if you're interested in coming over here at some stage. It's great preparation. You always have a crowd there for a start.

There's a fanbase there that'll wish you well walking down the street and will always turn up to the matches. Plus, you've the Echo and The Examiner and local radio and all that so it becomes second nature dealing with all the press."

Steve Coppell came and whisked him away from the comfort and joy of it all last June. At first, he wasn't 100 per cent sure whether he wanted to go or not. First off, he was certain that life couldn't possibly be better in Reading than it was in Cork. But it was more than that. It was going where he was nobody, where he had nothing to offer but his football. Nobody knew him, knew of him even. He had no reputation worth respecting. Nothing but his ability. But in the end, that's the only box that needs to be ticked. And he'd never have forgiven himself if he hadn't had a go, now that he felt he was grown-up enough to do so.

"It wasn't the normal route for a footballer from Ireland really, was it? A lot of the fellas at English clubs have been destined to for greatness since they were 14. Or at least that's what they've been told.

Then they go to Man United or Arsenal when they're 15 and in plenty of cases you never hear of them again. I'm not saying the way I did it is better but it was definitely better for me. It was the only way I could have done it to be honest. I saw a lot of lads coming back and playing in the Eircom League, coming home from England depressed and disillusioned with the whole thing. And I remember thinking a couple of times, 'Jesus, thank God I didn't go when I had the chance.'

"Because that would have been me. I know well it would.

I wouldn't have stuck the life of an apprentice footballer over here. Like, even some of the things I see the young lads at Reading having to do, I know there's no way I'd have been happy with that life. Getting the kit ready for the first team? Making sure the boots are clean, the kits are folded and the balls are pumped? It wouldn't have been for me.

Not that I didn't like working or anything. It's just that that kind of thing wouldn't have sat right with me. I get embarrassed now when one of the young lads has to clean my boots so I always try to do it myself. But they're just programmed into doing it. I always laugh to myself and think about how it'd be if we told the minors and under-16s at Adamstown to clean the seniors' boots. You'd get some look."

You could worry for Kevin Doyle in the world he's about to step into. You know the kind of thing. Footballer in sense of humour outrage!

Footballer in not thinking of himself scandal! Footballer in not taking himself too seriously shocker!

But with the oddsmakers already taking a beating on the fact that he's made it this far in this way, it wouldn't be a surprise if he came out the other end utterly unscathed and wondering what all the fuss was about.