2009 finished exactly as he would have wanted. When he signed for the Bannsiders on a short term contract at the end of August, he already had an eye on the January transfer window.

His wish came true when the phone call came from Torquay United. The League Two outfit and their manager Paul Buckle had seen enough of the 19-year-old midfielder to convince them to take a chance.

Torquay is not Everton, and O’Kane will admit that. But in terms of the standard of football, he sees his new club on the south coast of England as being of a similar standard to the one he’s just left on the north coast of his motherland.

"Coleraine gave me a chance to play first team football, which is totally different from reserve football. It was a bit of a wake up call to me at the start.

"Playing for Everton reserves, you might have got beat but if you played well yourself then it was ok, because it means nothing really, you just go on to the next game.

"But playing for Coleraine did mean something, you realise that it does matter and that people get sacked if they lose games, so in terms of the desire and will to win of the teams, the Irish League was tougher."

That, however, is not the level at which he wants to spend his entire football career. The Feeny native has a confidence in his own ability that he will climb back up the ladder, but admits it might take a couple of years.

"They have a really young team over here and the thing about the manager is that he’ll give you a chance if you’re good enough. It’s a very young squad.

"Obviously I want to stay here for a while, I have until May to prove myself and I’ll happily extend my contract if the chance comes up. I believe in my own ability, I believe I’m good enough to play here and at a higher level.

"I hope not to be here for 6, 7, 8 years, but maybe for 2 or 3 years, and then hopefully move on to a League One or Championship club."

First though, he has to earn his place. He left home for the second time on Tuesday morning, arriving on the south coast to sign a deal that keeps him there until May 12 this year.

That gives him exactly four months to the day to impress enough to earn himself a long-term deal. The big freeze ensured that his first day wouldn’t be spent on the training ground, but somewhere rather colder.

"I trained with the boys on Tuesday for the first time, we went to the beach. All the pitches are frozen over so we’ve been either at the beach or a local Astroturf pitch.

"I didn’t think it was as cold over here as it is at home but I got out of the car at the beach and inside 10 seconds I was dindling with the cold, I wanted to get back in the car."

19^th in League Two, they are just seven points clear of the drop zone, with their home games attracting an average crowd of around 3,000.

They are out of the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. It’s fair to say that Torquay’s prospects for the rest of the season are pretty bleak.

But that won’t affect Eunan O’Kane’s need to impress if the club are to extend his contract beyond May. While he still dreams of playing in front of the Kop in the red of his beloved former city rivals Liverpool, he is realistic enough to know that it’s a pipe dream at the minute. He knows that fighting his way into the first team and climbing up the table with ‘The Gulls’ is the primary objective.

"For me personally, I can’t wait to get in the team. I think we’re out of the cups that we play in but we need to create a bigger gap between us and the teams at the bottom and start moving up the league."

It might be camouflaged in the yellow jerseys of a side that, in the old system before Coca Cola got their hands on the naming rights would have been classed as Third Division, but this is still the dream for O’Kane.

The same dream as it is for every young boy who’s ever flicked on Sky Sports to see 60,000 fans screaming at 22 millionaires who are paid to play football. O’Kane admits that he is glad to be back in full-time football.

"When I was with Coleraine, I was training twice a week in the evening and playing a game on a Saturday. Over here I’m back to being a full-time, professional footballer.

"It’s great to have a job where you’re finished at 1 in the afternoon, you’re getting paid for it and you’re doing something you love, it’s just the ideal job.

"We start around 10 in the morning and training for one and a half or two hours and that’s us finished. Depending on the fixtures, some days you might have a gym session after the training but that doesn’t happen that often."

He saw his chance at Coleraine as a stepping stone and, as it turned out, he was right. But should he wake from the dream of making a successful career over the water, the former Banagher Gaelic footballer says he would have no hesitation in returning to the Showgrounds.

"My time at Coleraine was brilliant, really. I don’t have a bad word to say about the club or my time there, I really loved it.

"They were good to me and I really enjoyed my time there, I think they’ve helped me and I’ve helped them. If it ever comes that I have to come back home, I wouldn’t need a second thought about going back."

He has a level head on his young shoulders. From he first went to Maiden City, he has sacrificed almost everything in his quest to make a living from playing the game professionally.

O’Kane has always had a confidence in his own ability, but he also knows his own flaws. There are parts of his game that he knows need special attention if he is to start climbing back towards the top.

"I feel I am good enough for this level, I’m not just coming over here for the easy ride and a few handy months away from home. Hopefully everything goes to plan and I can stay here a while.

"I’d personally say that my technical ability is good enough to play at a higher level but at the minute I’m looking to get a bit bigger physically.

"There are other wee things like my heading of the ball that I need to work on but I’d like to think I’ll get stronger over the next six months to a year, which would put my development a lot further forward."

Story courtesy Derry Post  - Photographs courtesy of Pinnacle Photo Agency UK