Ever wondered what Brian O’Neill might have done had he not been a footballer? You might be surprised! 

The fans ask the questions in the latest edition of You’ve Got Mail.

What is your favourite cheese?
Christine Falconer
Cheddar, on toast.

How is you nipper after last season’s Play-Off hotel incident?  Can you elaborate on what happened and did it affect your performance on the day?
Sam C
He’s a lot better now. It is one of them things, it wasn’t ideal timing but you get on with it.

Hi Brian , I was just wondering if you was going to be part of the managing squad for North End , as someone told me a few months ago?
Zoe . 15 . Preston
Well I want to know who told her that!

What’s a typical day in the life of an international footballer?
We didn’t get back till late last night because we trained late last night and then we went to a restaurant just to get away from the boredom of the hotel. This morning we got up and we had a signing thing which took 45 minutes, there was lots of stuff to sign it was unbelievable. Then we had lunch at one o’clock then we had a meeting at two o’clock which lasted about 45 to 50 minutes. It’s three o’clock now and we are travelling up to Hampden to train, it will take us about 45 minutes to get there and we will train for a good hour or so, it will be back to the hotel where we will have dinner at about eight o’clock.

If you were not a footballer, what would be your chosen career ?
Christine Falconer
A singer, I’ve always enjoyed singing and I would have loved to have done that. I would have sung all sorts, a wee bit of crooning, a wee bit of rock but none of the other stuff, none of that rap rubbish.

At this stage in your career, the recent call-ups to the Scottish National squad must have been pleasing.  Had you ‘given up hope’ (not saying you’re past it or anything) of playing for Scotland?
Ben Collison (in France)
To be honest I hadn’t given it a great deal of thought and I’ve always been like that. I think you just concentrate on your club stuff and if that is going ok then it will come along if it is right and it did. If it happens it happens because you are doing well for your club team and that is all I concentrate on.

How much longer do you feel you can play both domestic and international football as some players have retired from internationals to prolong their club career.
I don’t think I think about it in that sense, I think you just get to a stage, I have got three kids and it is such a long time to be away. This time we are away for nearly two weeks and when it gets to that it is quite hard. Then it can be harder having done it and not playing games and it can be quite frustrating when you really want to play.

If you could play for any team in the world  who would it be ?
Lisa , Blackburn
I think at this moment everyone gets excited about Barcelona and Real Madrid. I think you see the type of football that gets played in Spain and I think it would be nice to experience a few games like that in front of full houses.

What is it like to get called up for your national team time after time. and how do you feel when you put on that Scotland shirt ready to go out of the tunnel in front of thousands off Scotland fans?
It’s much the same as any other game, I’m not one to suffer from nerves. It is a game and that all comes about when you look back on it. I think when you are there and you are in the tunnel with the jersey on you are thinking and concentrating on the game and I don’t really think about all of the hullabaloo.

What car do you drive?
I’m changing every single week, I’m in between cars at the minute but the last car that I had was a pick-up truck.

What do you think of Preston’s night life?
I haven’t sampled a great deal of it. I just tend to go out in Lytham and stay there.

Who has influenced you the most in your football?
Debbie from Dublin
Probably my parents in my early days.

What has been your favourite club to play at and why?
I must admit I am really enjoying it at Preston. My family is really happy with where we are and we had a good year last year, it was really enjoyable. It is a great set of lads, we don’t have any ‘Big Time Charlies’ at all which is very unusual for a football club. It would be good if we could go from strength to strength which is hard for a club like us when we have lost a couple of players which wasn’t ideal for us. It would be nice to think that in the future we could replace them maybe.

How old was you when you was scouted by a professional team ?
Josh McCarthy
I was about 11 or 12, it was Celtic.

How long do you take doing your hair???
Tommy Barton, Coniston Road
Not very long because I just got it cut. I’m not very good with my hair I tend to get it cut short and it grows and grows and then I get it cut short again. When it is long it takes a bit of time because I have got a haystack on my head.

When you were little which footballer did you look up to?
Paul McStay.

Who was your inspiration to become a footballer?
Charlotte, 13
I didn’t have one.

What was it like in the San Siro with the Scotland squad?
Wako Wallace, The Ramsey
It would have been better if I was playing but it was nice to experience it. I expected it to be louder it wasn’t as intimidating as I expected it to be.

Who spends the most time in the shower after a match?
Chris Tybalt, Ronaldsway News
You get people like Chris Lucketti who is very good at hanging around the showers just so that they can use other people’s shower gel and shampoo. You would think that with him being the captain of the club that he would set an example and bring in his own stuff but he tends to abuse his position and use everybody else’s.

Do you think we miss Eddie Lewis on the left flank?
Matty Scott, Ramsey
I don’t think anybody would disagree with me when I say that last year there was only him and Etherington who were top class wide left players. It is always going to be a blow and I probably miss him more than most because he is a good friend of mine.

Have you ever played up front?
Liam Tyrer Preston
Yes, lots of times. I played ten games in a row for Celtic in the mid-nineties, 10 games, two goals under Lou Macari. It wasn’t long before I was moved back though.

Has the signing of Jones and the much improved Dickson Etuhu made you step your game up?
Not particularly, I just do what I do, I go about my job and I try to do my job properly, much the same as last year and the year before that. I think we have got a lot of players who bring a lot of different things to the team and I think you really need that in a team. We have got a lot of different characters and a lot of different styles and they are probably are a bit different to myself. Dickson has really got the bit between his teeth this year and David Jones is a very good player but we have got a lot of other ones in there, we have still got Paul McKenna and Chris Sedgwick so it gives us a lot of competition and that is what it is all about.

Do you prefer to play in the all white kit which so the team play like Real Madrid last season,or the blue shorts which is tradition?
Beth Gavaghan, aged 11, Fulwood
To be honest I don’t really care, as long as I have got a jersey.

What was the first ever car you bought?
Georgina, Penwortham
It was a Y reg, 1.1 Ford Fiesta, it was about five years old, I loved that car.

Who did you support when you was younger?
Josh George, Heywood
Celtic