Mary Hannigan talks to John O'Shea about difficult secondseason syndrome

Looking hale and hearty.

"Ah, hanging in there."

Of course, you're no spring chicken now?"

"Exactly, pushing on - 23 now."

Only 23? Mind you, in the space of 12 months John O'Shea has been through more highs and lows than your average footballer experiences in a career.

A Premiership-winning medal in his first near-flawless full season with Manchester United, third only to Jermaine Jenas and Wayne Rooney in the "Young Player of the Year" awards, and enough plaudits to turn any young fella's head.

But it's been back down to planet earth with a bang in the last few months, O'Shea's membership of an alarmingly porous and error-strewn United defence earning him the first disapproving notes in his young career.

"But that's the career of a footballer," he sighs, with the world-weariness of a veteran. "You have to take the rough with the smooth. When you're a Manchester United player it's in your make-up to accept criticism and get on with it, and accept the plaudits when they come too - that's just the way you have to look at it.

"I was a youngster who worked my way up through the youth ranks, into the reserve team, into the first team, and I've just got to keep working hard to stay there. It's my second year in the first team, I've made a lot of appearances again, so I've been happy on a personal level, but, team-wise, it has, of course, been disappointing."

Has it been "us against the world" at United the last few weeks? "Yeah, exactly, that's the way it's been. But you have to be that closely knit, that 'together', that's what success breeds, so when people want to knock you - and they keep knocking you, writing you off - well, that's what happens at Manchester United.

"I've seen it in the youth team, playing in the youth leagues. Everyone you play - Millwall, Crewe, anyone - if they beat us it made their season, that's what you grow up with at United. It was the same when Wolves beat us this season, same reaction. It was a terrible defeat for us, that's what's cost us, losing to them, to Middlesbrough, drawing with Leeds, that's why we are where we are."

So, your confidence has taken a bit of a battering the last while, the team's too? "A bit, but you have to keep your belief and that's where having such a great manager, as we have, comes in, he keeps the confidence in us - you saw from Sunday (in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal at Highbury) that there weren't many of us low on confidence. We know there's not much between the teams, that's the way it's been for the last few years and I think we proved that again at Highbury, and I don't think it'll be any different again at the weekend."

A reference to Saturday's FA Cup semi-final meeting with Arsenal at Villa Park, questions about which the PR woman at ALSAA yesterday, where O'Shea was promoting Sony Playstation's latest game, warned were off limits. Why? Nobody knew. By order of Old Trafford? Or is O'Shea now just wary of the press and what they do with his quotes? Seems so. "Sometimes I've done an interview and next thing I see the headline in the paper and I think 'I didn't say that'. I don't want to stop talking to people but I might have to, which is a terrible way to have it. Some of us do feel, 'Christ, what's the point in talking to them if they're going to twist everything', but that's the life of a footballer, you've just got to cope with it, do your stuff on the pitch."

Which O'Shea feels he and his team-mates did at Highbury on Sunday. "Yeah, our pride is still intact. Psychologically we couldn't let Arsenal beat us, which they haven't this season, hopefully it will stay that way. We played like a team that should be a bit closer to Arsenal, in all honesty. It's just been a disappointing season in that sense.

"We had something to prove against them, there's no doubt, but some players have to prove it year in, year out. I keep using Giggsie (Ryan Giggs) as an example, he's been written off so many times it's incredible, but he keeps bouncing back with great performances, but that's what you have to put up with when you're at a club like Manchester United. Because of the success the club and team has had over the years people want to shoot you down and knock you off the top, and it's always a fight to stay on the top. But we're battling

hard."