On December 10 2008, Mark Randall appeared in the Champions League group stages for the very first time.
The midfielder – 19-years-old at the time – replaced Alex Song for the final 11 minutes of Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat to Porto.
As it turned out, it was the one and only game he played at that level – in fact, it was the fourth to last game the midfielder ever played for the club before leaving for Chesterfield in the summer of 2011 after a decade in north London.
The experience at the pinnacle of European football was fleeting, but one he still savours.
“Once we got through from the group stages, Arsene Wenger liked to give the young players an opportunity,” Randall – now 34 – tells Sky Sports.
“The first thing I remember about the Porto game is coming on and getting nutmegged straightaway, so that wasn’t a great start!
“As a kid coming on on a stage like that was a really good experience. I was pretty fearless so I just got on with it. I don’t remember massive amounts because it was all a bit of a blur, but the whole experience was great.
“He [Wenger] was brilliant. He just let you go out and play your own game. He said: ‘If you are good enough, you can play’. That was all you needed to hear as a young boy. He let us play with freedom so we were nice and relaxed when we got the opportunity.”
Fast-forward just shy of 16 years from that night in the Estadio do Dragao and Randall’s career has come full circle.
Since the summer of 2019, he has been playing for Northern Irish champions Larne, who have reached the league stage of this season’s Conference League.
Tiernan Lynch’s side beat Kosovar side Ballkani on penalties in the third qualifying round, then recorded a 4-3 aggregate win over Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar to become the first side from Northern Ireland to ever progress past European qualifying.
On Thursday night, they face Molde in Norway, before hosting a cross-border derby with Shamrock Rovers of the Republic of Ireland three weeks later.
Larne – owned by Kenny Bruce, co-founder of online estate agent Purple Bricks – also face St Gallen and Gent at their Inver Park home, with further trips to Slovenia to face Olimpija and Belarus to face Dinamo Minsk.
“It’s a massive achievement for us and everyone at the club,” says Randall.
“We just have to go and enjoy every minute of every game now. We’re here and we’ve got to go and take the opportunity.”
The big question, though is: How did Randall end up in County Antrim at all?
After two years at Chesterfield – where he won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in 2011/12 – spent time in Italy with Ascoli, before spells at MK Dons, Barnet, Newport and Crawley preceded a drop out of the EFL for the first time when he joined Hemel Hempstead of the National League South in March 2019.
“One of my old managers at Newport got in touch with me, who put me in touch with Larne as they were looking for a midfielder,” he explains.
“I came over for a week to see if I liked it, really enjoyed myself and everything about the club and I signed.”
He has not looked back since.
“It’s the most I’ve felt at home at a club and my family love it over here.
“Life is nice and relaxed, a lot more chilled out than England. There’s a nice coastal road five minutes from my house, so we like to take the kids down there onto the beach and chill out. When the sun’s out, it’s a lovely place to be.
“Playing close to 200 games and winning trophies was the goal for me and everyone at the club when I came here.
Randall joined Larne in the summer of 2019
“If I’d come over maybe a year or two earlier it would’ve been nice, but it was still really good timing. I’d had enough of playing in England and being around League One and League Two clubs.
“Coming over here was probably one of the best decisions I ever made.”
It has been a long journey, but Randall is getting a chance on the big stage once again.
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