Givens welcomes the return of Barrett

DON GIVENS last night welcomed the return of Graham Barrett, the Arsenal striker on loan to Brighton, to Ireland’s U21 squad for their European Championship tie against Albania today (2pm).

Barrett was promoted to the senior squad last week in place of Robbie Keane and could not be included in Givens' team for their match against Georgia.

Barrett's return helped Givens compensate for the loss of Paul Tierney, the Manchester United full-back on loan to Crewe, and Andy Reid, Nottingham Forest.

Both returned directly home yesterday when the Irish flew from Georgia to Albania Tierney because of an injury and Reid because he is automatically suspended after receiving a red card against Georgia.

Givens promoted Kevin O'Connor (Brentford) to his team after he impressed when introduced as a second half substitute against Georgia. He was making his debut in that match and helped set up Ireland's equalising goal.

The U21 team has virtually no chance of progressing beyond the group stage as they have taken just one point from three matches, but Givens reinforced his view that he saw qualification as a bonus rather than a priority.

"I said right from the start it's a bonus if we qualify. I am primarily concerned with developing players for the senior squad rather than developing teams, so as long as the boys are going through into Brian Kerr's squad that is what matters, and it will be the icing on the cake if we can top a group along the way."

Givens has one or two players in his squad whose contracts are up in the summer, so he is encouraging them to use tomorrow's game as a shop window.

IRELAND U21's: G. Stack (Arsenal/Beveren); S. Brennan (Newcastle Utd), J. Goodwin (Stockport), C. Byrne (Scunthorpe), S. Paisley (Manchester City); K. O'Connor (Brentford), J. Thompson (Nottingham Forest), L. Miller (Celtic), S. Thornton (Sunderland); J. Daly (Stockport), G. Barrett (Arsenal/Brighton).