Ben Symes

Like how tough was that as well for you to kind of,

leave all that and leave your family as well and move to somewhere like Newcastle and kind of pursue this dream of being a professional footballer.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, of course.

And being from Cerca Góisín, you know yourself that they'll all keep you grounded over there as well.

they definitely will yeah and like as well it is important like your parents have been such a kind of support base as well for you as well they've kind of you know like it's been hard on them as well to have their their youngest son go to go across to England as well so it is difficult for everybody involved and to get to this stage is pretty incredible as well but

I suppose what comes next is the next five games for you at Hearts and this opportunity to win a league title for the first time since 1960.

Is this possibly the most exciting time there's ever been at this club for a very, very long time, I suppose?

What's it like playing in the derbies or in Ibrox in Celtic Park?

The games just seem super fast paced, super intense, like you don't get a minute to breathe.

Hibs the full stand and then when we go to Easter Road Hibs will give Hearts the full stand it makes the atmosphere so much better because you have around 4,000 5,000 fans and it's just crazy yeah yeah well looking forward to it this Sunday half past four Hibs and Hearts Easter Road Oisín you'll be playing and thanks very much for joining us and yeah best of luck with everything this season we'll talk to you again soon

yeah like it is and it's some story like and it's mad like how all these like lads are connected like you just mentioned there Ben about like he played with Jack Moylan and Conor Grant and played in the same team as Troy Parra like could you imagine wake up on a Saturday morning and you're like right who are we playing today oh we're playing against Troy Parra, Lushion Mackenzie we're playing against Jack Moylan, Conor Grant and those years are gone now because of the way the

the underage league of Ireland squads are so maybe it's a better thing because it's more regionalised but like that used to be and when I was growing up as well the whole thing was you played for your club you played for like your representative team in your league and then you go and play in the DDSL and the DDSL was just like elite primary division unbelievable and standard was ridiculous yeah and like you couldn't yeah you couldn't breathe like I

I never played in the DDSL but we played against them a few times growing up like and I remember one time playing against Jack Byrne and just your head spinning you're like how how I can't even this isn't they're playing a different sport to us so yeah it's just it's just fascinating and it's great to see like them lads are doing well and those lads maybe took a bit of time after their after they'd first kind of graduated from like like senior football and they took maybe a couple of years to get in and kind of find their feet and yeah it's great we have such a representation of Irish footballers abroad it's been it's brilliant

what's it 1985 is it 86 I think 60 to have won a title yeah but sorry Aberdeen I'm talking about the refreshing side of it for Alex I think it's something interesting that we could get into because like one of my best mates is a big Celtic fan he's like obviously he's like I could not think of anyone worse than Hearts or Rangers winning a title I am

you know or even like there's players who were playing NDSL who've gone on to play yeah yeah and even outside that as well but it's a good thing now that it's kind of been more spread across the country but for our Andrea Mbamadeli tomorrow night French Cup semi-final last week before we get to like that game last week oh my god the videos everything that's come out off the back of that has made like Strasbourg are this weird sort of

you can see the drive he's a very cool composed character like he looks the part and he acts the part too but over the last couple of months he has I think like when I first seen him come on for Ireland and we were me and my dad were chatting about it and he used the word Rolls Royce defender I think in his if he kind of reaches potential in the ceiling that he has he does look like a Rolls Royce defender and hopefully this move to France and French football will

is the thing that kind of keeps him fit and keeps him playing 90 minutes week in week out at a pretty at a really good level really good level and I know you've watched a lot of him Ben and like yeah this fella is definitely going to be an integral part of this Ireland squad over the next couple of years and it's just been kind of crazy that we have so many centre backs that he wasn't in the squad for the game against Czechia but yeah

I just think interestingly as well, like he's very cool and calm, collecting on the ball.

oh I'm Irish I can't go and you know back in the day it would have been a case of we would it's a bit more chest out isn't it it is yeah and he encapsulates that to a T I think anyway from what I've seen of him I think he's definitely a player that you know we're all a bit oh well Nian Collins playing midfield and I don't think we're going to need that now and maybe hopefully Buston-Lowell maybe develops into a player that we want him to develop into but I'm a bad medallic he's well able to step into midfield and play a couple of nice passes too yeah