Kinsella to keep eye on Croke Park after Russia tie

IRELAND’S midfield dynamo, Mark Kinsella, will have one major question on his lips when Ireland step off their plane at Dublin Airport on Sunday, ideally with a European Championship win over Russia in Moscow already achieved: “Who is winning the hurling final?”

Kinsella is a self-confessed GAA fan who played hurling and football with St Aidan’s of Whitehall while at school and he and his family have a particular interest in the Croke Park final: His mother, Theresa, came from Scarriff in Co Clare, and his father was born in Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny.

Kinsella, a comparatively late bloomer in football terms, this season began a new career at club level with Aston Villa and, at 30 years of age, he said yesterday he had not expected such a development.

“I came up through the lower leagues before I joined a big club at Charlton” he said. “When I thought my chance of a bigger club had passed me by, in came Aston Villa with an offer. It was an easy decision to make.”

Still Kinsella was quick to point out the value of a supportive wife who must chip in this week while hubby is away on international duty, by driving their children from his home in London to their new school in Birmingham.

The Kinsellas are house-hunting in the Birmingham area but while they are still seeking the perfect home, his wife must mind their three children and take on the daily commute. “She’s been a rock,” he says.

Injuries interrupted his smooth progress at Charlton last season where he was club captain and cost him his place in the starting team. But he said he was so happy there that he was happily prepared to stay and fight for his place back until Villa came in.

His strong GAA background - his father played hurling - means that he was disappointed at Dublin’s loss to Armagh on Sunday and that he will be hoping Kilkenny win the hurling title. And he was full of praise for the new stadium at Croke Park.

“I played there once at school level,” he said but said he did not want to get involved in a discussion as to whether or not Ireland should play there. “It is a GAA stadium,” he said. “And I think Ireland are not at a point where we should have our own stadium. Playing at Croke Park is not an issue for me.”

Kinsella’s game is all about graft and honest endeavour and he quickly refers to Ireland’s recent 3-0 win over Finland:

“I don’t see any of us taking it for granted and we’ve seen what happens to teams like Croatia and Holland and we don’t want to be one of them. We’ve worked hard to get where we are and we’ve showed against Finland that we’re definitely up for it.

“We’re going to go into the Russia game the same as we’ve gone into every game, to set out to win it and get what we can out of the game and if we have to we want to come away with a point but the thing is not to lose.”

He said the World Cup experience was a dream come true for him and one he and his colleagues wanted to repeat in Portugal in the European finals in two years.

“Ireland did it in 1988 when they qualified for the European finals and bounced back in 90 and just missed out in 1992. In 88 and 90 they had two great championships and I can’t see why we can’t achieve the same as Jack did.

Russia are Ireland’s most highly rated opponents in the qualifying campaign and he warned: “It’s going to be hard for us because I’ve been to Albania as an U21 with Ireland when the seniors were playing and we scraped a win there 2-1 and matches like that will present a different kind of challenge.

“But I think that we’ve got mental strength in the squad now and I think we might be able to carry it on. The only way you enjoy your football is by winning, no one likes losing. When you lose on a Saturday it ruins your weekend.

“It’s the same at international level but the games don’t come around as quickly as you would like. If you win you can’t wait for your next one, if you lose you can’t wait for the next one but the next one is four or five weeks away and you don’t want to be thinking over what could have been.”

“We’ve lads who’ve been together for six and seven years now. We know each other inside out and it will go well for us in the future, hopefully we’ll start on Saturday in Moscow against Russia and kick off the campaign in the right direction.”