GET up and head into training to get told about your second call-up to the Irish squad by the club first thing. Feel dead chuffed in a relaxed, mission accomplished kind of way, excited and twitchy in another. Give the usual few hours of yourself to Reading. Then throw the white of Waterford on for a puckaround with hurleys and sliotars on the training ground for the benefit of BBC Northern Ireland, along with Kevin Doyle togged out in the Wexford colours, Shane Long in the Tipp ones and Alan Bennett in the Cork red. Watch the non-Irish have a few swings but complain of sore wrists, poor things. Knock off, come home, do an interview and then head off to the driving range for an hour or two. Ladies and gents, in the wacky new world of Stephen Hunt's footballing life, it's just your run-of-the-mill, nothingto-see-here, average working day.

That it wasn't always so is what makes it all the more sugary sweet now. Fact is, a couple of summers ago Stephen Hunt had spent a few nothing seasons with Crystal Palace, a few promising ones with Brentford and had just completed a medical to join league one Bradford when Steve Coppell came calling. Coppell had already been his boss twice and wanted to hook up a third time with championship side Reading. Hunt took a punt on himself being up to the challenge, hitched a ride on the back of a team seriously going places and made a handful of starts and a bellyful of subbing appearances. It wouldn't be the first or last time Hunt backed himself and came out smelling of roses.

So now here he is. A Premiership player and Irish international all in his 26th year and not a second too soon. Here's an Irish player who's taken the scenic route and doesn't really feel like hanging around admiring the surroundings anymore. Once he was in the squad he was thinking of getting a run out of some sort; now he's got the run he's thinking of starting, of making a difference. No point in beating around the bush, Stephen Hunt was talking about getting his Ireland chance even in the darker days.

"Yeah, I've probably been saying it for a few years to be honest. Blabbing to friends on the phone about getting picked for Ireland and they're there agreeing with me, 'Sure Stephen, of course' and thinking to themselves, 'What is he on about?' Getting off the phone then and thinking the same, probably. But you've got to have ambition and you may as well try and reach as high as you can. Once we got to the Premiership and if I was playing regularly and performing, I knew then there was a good chance I'd get picked. Belief has played a big part in getting me here, no doubt."

The call came on 30 January with the squad announcement for San Marino.

Reading were at home to Wigan that night so the phone was turned off all day, but the 50 or 60 text messages clogging his inbox when he turned it back on told him enough.

He turned up at Irish headquarters the following weekend, set about his task to make an impression and if rooming with Shane Long was an excuse to drift along with the Reading gang, he didn't take it. No shrinking violet in the corner routine.

"Well I've waited long enough for this so I don't want to be passing it up. I went and sat with other players, said hello, got involved with the banter. Even with fellas like Damien Duff and Robbie Keane - who were both great in fairness - I wanted to get to know them."

And the match? Memories of that?

"I was delighted to get on. Nearly scored with my first touch, I made good enough contact but it just hit the post and came out. When they scored, I was thinking 'Oh cripes, that miss could have wrapped it up' but I put in a few crosses after that and that's all I can do. I was fairly happy with the amount I did in the 15 minutes or so I got. Players were disappointed afterwards, the booing coming off made it hard. But I'd expect a reaction on a few levels from that. I'd expect the team to lift it, naturally, after some criticism. And after the fans booing us off, I'd expect them to be loudly behind us from the start this time. You saw with Man City last week, booed off in one game and the next game the fans really got behind the team - I can't imagine anything different from the Irish fans at home. And now that I've come on, I want to go the next step and start, that's how I am."

A cannily accurate calling of his input last time, a few whipped crosses in a does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin wingers' guide. So, a confident young Irish lad. Not cocky mind, don't get that impression. Just an innate mixture of belief and honesty that makes him mention hopes for a crack off the Welsh five times in the first five minutes of conversation. Another example. Last summer Reading were heading to the Premiership and offering him a one-year deal only - extras depending on impressions made in 06/07 - while the safe options were longer deals in the championship. Remember he wasn't first choice in the team back then.

He snapped their hands off for the chance to test himself and appear on Match of the Day and it's hardly a call that's backfired.

Nineteen league starts - Bobby Convey's injury certainly helped in getting in there - and another seven appearances as sub in the top division. Two goals, three direct assists and a hand in a helluva lot more of Reading's strikes and general threat.

Three man-of-the-match awards at home to Chelsea, Charlton and Sheffield Utd, the highest average performance rating of all Reading's players and according to Opta, those wonderful stats people, in the top five at the club for shots taken, crosses, dribbles and frees won. Yep, it's fair to say Stephen Hunt's been right up there with the Doyles, Litas, Shoreys and Sidwells, a leading role rather than a supporting one in the Reading fairytale.

Oh, and that contract's been extended till 2009 as well.

Ask for highlights so far and there's a pretty loud hiss that has a where-tobegin feel to it.

"Oooh, that's a tough one. Anfield was awesome as a Liverpool fan, walking out there was special. My first start against Chelsea is probably the one that stands out. And the first goal against West Ham.

That was the day I really started to settle into it and felt at home, scoring the goal was great for confidence. We were brilliant that day and I did my bit so you can't but take some belief from that and think you're not out of place in the Premiership. Which is a great feeling in fairness."

Of course, then there were the Arsenal games. Ninety minutes of chasing shadows, feeling like he was a kid back at Carrick United, his old club in Waterford, where even if the second game was ever so slightly better it was still a long hour and a half with responsibility for Alexander Hleb and little chance of attack.

And those random incidents Hunt got involved in weren't all sweetness and light either. He's drawn a line in the sand about Petr Cech and doesn't feel any need to explain about Keith Gillespie or Jens Lehmann.

"I honestly didn't do a thing to provoke Keith Gillespie. Lehmann in fairness seems to be involved in something every second week and it was nothing anyway, just a bit of talk and wind-up. My record's been fairly decent anyway. I've one yellow card, I think, this season and one red card in my whole career. So there's no cause for concern there."

Still there's been more fulfilling days than sad ones. Out in Dubai last weekend for a mini-break with some teammates, Hunt was a little down in the mouth about recent losses and form until the girlfriend reminded him of how well they'd done overall. A handy dose of perspective and a chance to take in all that's happened these last nine months or so.

He's back talking about the Wales and Slovakia games, how much he wants to make an impression, about the last time he was in Croke Park - the Waterford/Kilkenny game of 2004, "a downer of a day, we lost" - and the emotion he imagines the games should stir. 'Amhr�n na bhFiann' and all that.

"Ah, I just really want to be involved, like. I want to start and then if I start, that we win." He laughs at how that sounds.

"There's your headline now. If I start, we'll win." And he's off, all energy and hope and after the year or two he's had, why wouldn't he be? He's only half-joking too, you know.