ALAN Mahon is watching his back.

Since his loan move to Blackburn Rovers nothing has happened to him. No practical jokes, no initiation ceremony, nothing.

He can't believe it.

Back in his Tranmere days he was always looking over his shoulder, sure that someone somewhere was about to pull something on him.

"Nothing has happened to me here so far, touch wood," said the 22-year-old Dubliner. "But we shouldn't be talking about it because it will give them ideas."

You could forgive Mahon for being paranoid.

The young midfielder spent six years at Tranmere Rovers before a free transfer to Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon in June.

At 17, just a year after his move to Prenton Park as a trainee, he was thrust into the first team and stayed there for five years, going on some famous Worthington Cup runs and playing in the final against Leicester last season.

The dressing room banter was a vital part of that success.

"At Tranmere it was frightening," he recalls. "The lads would kill you, some of the things they would do to you, you had to be on your toes all the time.

"But when I moved to Portugal it was more football. There was no messing about, it was a really serious business.

"Since I came back, though, I have been on my guard a bit because somebody's usually got something up their sleeve."

At 22, many players at top clubs are still pushing for a regular first team place, but Mahon was a first team regular at 17 at Tranmere. "When I was looking for a club in England, I'd been to Chelsea, Leeds and West Ham but I thought I would never get a proper shot at the first team there because they were such big clubs.

"At Tranmere they had eight players in the first team who had come through the ranks, so I thought I would get my chance there, and I did. I played a lot of games for them."

Mahon moved to Portugal on a free transfer in the summer, breaking the hearts of thousands of Tranmere fans.

He has 'no regrets' but jumped at the chance of a return to England.

"They have a big squad at Sporting and no reserve team so I was in the squad most weeks but I wasn't getting a game and they take it so easy out there in terms of training, I lost a lot of my fitness.

"The move here happened quickly. My agent rang me last week to tell me I had to get back to England immediately, that he had sorted out a deal with Blackburn.

"When I heard it was Blackburn I was made up, I just got back as soon as I could. The facilities here are superb. It's a Premiership club isn't it?"

There was just one drawback in returning to England-- no winter break, and no Christmas with the family.

"I don't really mind it," says the player who describes himself simply as 'an attacking midfielder who gives 100 per cent'.

"Obviously, if I wasn't involved in football not being with my family at Christmas would be horrible but I would rather that, than not be involved in football.

"They are having their break right now in Portugal so I would have been going home, which makes it harder in a way, but I got the chance to play football instead."

And his plans for Christmas Day? "We are training on Christmas Day."

Growing up in the small town of Rialto, just south of Dublin, Mahon spent most of his time kicking a football around.

"I played football all the time," he says. "And when I was 11 or 12 that's when the 1990 World Cup was on when Ireland did well.

"I was a Manchester United fan then. Everyone in Ireland is a Manchester United fan."

Mahon's own international career took off just five years later when, at the age of 17, he made his debut for Ireland's Under 21s.

He won a record 20 caps before moving up to the senior side and hopes the move back to England will kickstart his senior international career.

"I need to get my match fitness back first and then I can start thinking about getting back into the Irish team.

"I know some of the players here, like Jason McAteer, from trips with Ireland so that has made it a bit easier.

"But I have tried to mix with all the players. I didn't want to come here and just get to know one or two people, but they have all been brilliant.

"I am staying at the Dunkenhalgh with Marcus (Bent) and I have played against him in the past. The lads here are a different class, they've been brilliant." Mahon still owns a 'nice little place' on the Wirral but finds the hotel easier at times.

"I am still struggling to find my way here from the Wirral, I got totally lost the other night.

"I am splitting my time between home and the hotel. It is safer to stay at the hotel in the week, I know the way from the hotel!"

Just a week into his Ewood career Mahon has already experienced the derby game the rest of East Lancs had waited 17 years for.

"I didn't think I would be involved at all in the derby because I had just come in, but it was good to come on as a sub. The intensity was amazing.

"The Worthington Cup final last year was intense like that, and the semi-finals against Bolton, they were big games. We had a lot of big games at Tranmere in the Worthington Cup.

"But there was never anything as passionate as that, with so much rivalry.

"I didn't even know there was so much rivalry, and I can't believe what they call each other.

"I kept saying 'Why are they saying that, why are they calling them that?' I can't understand why they would want to call them that."

Right now, Mahon might be grateful for a bit of playful name-calling and joke-playing -- to make him feel more at home.