Cunningham says he is not the next Roy Keane

KENNY CUNNINGHAM yesterday said that anybody expecting him, as captain of Ireland, to exert as much influence as did Roy Keane, were due for a disappointment.

Keane, he said, was a colossus in midfield for Ireland who had taken games by the ’scruff of the neck’.

The Birmingham defender said last night: “I think Roy was very much a leader by example, the way he played and approached the game and his performances on the pitch which inspired everybody. He was and still is a world-class player.