Givens recites text of Connolly's refusal to join Irish squad

DON GIVENS last night summarily dismissed speculation on the circumstances of his invitation to David Connolly to join the Irish squad here in Athens with the comment: "I want to concentrate on the players who are here and on Wednesday's match."

Givens was asked to respond to reports from England that Connolly claimed he could not join the squad because he was injured and he immediately said: "I'll give you exactly what happened on the phone call and after that I don't intend to answer any more questions about David Connolly."

He added: "The conversation on the phone on Saturday evening went 'Hello David, it's Don Givens. Are you fit ?'

"And he said 'to what do I owe the honour of this 'phone call'.

"And I said 'I would like you to join the squad tomorrow'

"And he said 'why was I not selected in the original squad ?'

"And I said 'David, that was the choice that I made.'

"And then he said 'I should be the number one striker for Ireland, not number five.'

"At that point I said to him 'David do you want to come tomorrow ?'

"He said 'No' I said - 'Right David, good luck and put the phone down.'

"That's it and that is one hundred per cent what the phone call was, nothing different to that."

Givens added: "I said at the conference the other day what I thought about somebody refusing to play for their country. That's really all I want to say on the David Connolly thing, I don't want this to become a negative force for Wednesday for the boys here.

"Since I put the phone down I have not spoken to him. When I asked him if he was fit I presumed he had the chance then to say yes, no or kiss my backside."

Givens said he had written down the text of the conversation at home immediately after it had taken place. "I don't want to give this matter any more length," he said, "I prefer to talk about Wednesday and the players who are looking forward to being involved."

Connolly, who was replaced after 78 minutes of Saturday's match for Wimbledon in a 3-2 win over Walsall, claimed yesterday that Givens had not allowed him time to say that he could not join the squad because of injury.

The spat between the two should not impact on the future of either man because Givens has stated that he has no wish to continue as manager of Ireland's senior team after this friendly match against Greece, he prefers to return to the U21 squad.

But he was at pains to highlight his attitude to his temporary appointment "I captained my country for 45 minutes in one match against Argentina and now I am managing the National team and for me that is an honour.

"I am absolutely delighted to be here and while I know it is for just one match it is still going to be a fabulous honour to serve my country."

Connolly's suggestion that he was rated the number five striker for Ireland refers to the fact that Robbie Keane and Damien Duff were preferred to him at the World Cup finals.

Then the squad that Givens first selected for this match included Clinton Morrissey and Graham Barrett, two specialist centre-forwards. Connolly has scored eight goals for Ireland in 34 appearances under Mick McCarthy, most of them as substitute. He has been in free-scoring form for Wimbledon since he returned recently from injury and he scored a hat-trick for them the weekend before the squad was announced.