O’Shea wants regular Ireland place

JOHN O’SHEA has set his sights on a regular international berth after furthering his Premiership education with another rock-solid display at Old Trafford on Monday night.

The 21-year-old Waterford-born defender has been the find of Manchester United’s season so far, turning in the latest in a string of impressive displays in the 3-0 win over Everton.

It was O’Shea’s ninth start in the Red Devils’ 14 competitive matches this term and with substitute appearances thrown in, the young Irishman has almost doubled his previous United first-team outings.

And now he heads off to join Mick McCarthy’s European Championship hopefuls, hoping he will get the chance of adding to his single full cap so far, won against Croatia earlier this year.

‘‘I am looking forward to it,’’ he said of next Wednesday’s Lansdowne Road clash with Switzerland.

‘‘This time I feel I might get a chance. After the defeat in Russia this is a big game for us. Lansdowne Road will be packed and it should be a great atmosphere.’’

United boss Alex Ferguson has marvelled at the ease with which O’Shea has adapted to regular Premiership combat. The former trainee refused to be fazed after being asked to stand in for Rio Ferdinand at the start of the campaign and, after filling in at right-back as well during the absence of Gary Neville, is now due a run in the side as Ferdinand recovers from knee surgery.

‘‘John’s form has been fantastic,’’ enthused Ferguson, who was amazed at how much the Irishman had physically developed over the summer.

‘‘There is an argument that he should have been in the team anyway.’’

With his laid-back manner, O’Shea has taken all the plaudits in his stride.

A regular member of United’s reserve-team title-winning squad last term, O’Shea admits the step up in standard has taken some getting used to, although you would never know it by the way he handled Everton’s clutch of strikers last night.

He intervened twice as David Moyes’ Toffeemen pushed forward, denying speedy forward Tomasz Radzinski with a couple of perfectly-timed tackles. Then he stood firm as 16-year-old Wayne Rooney tried to inflict some damage on the home defence, United finally romping home courtesy of a late Paul Scholes’ double and Ruud van Nistelrooy’s penalty.

‘‘Everton have some real livewires up front and they never gave us a break,’’ O’Shea said. ‘‘It’s not like the reserves. You have to concentrate for the full 90 minutes otherwise you get shown up.

‘‘The more experienced players really help you out and other than a couple of half-chances last night, we dealt with the pressure fairly comfortably.

‘‘It was another clean sheet as well which means a lot to us because we have to start turning Old Trafford into a fortress again.