Have boots, will travel

IT’S JUST as well that Anthony Stokes is a boy who just loves to play football.

He may be living the dream but only because he’s willing to put the hours in. Tonight in Drogheda he will join Stoke’s Adam Rooney up front as the Irish U19s seek to get their European Championship elite qualifying phase off to a winning start against Bulgaria.

Two more games, against Germany and Hungary, will determine if Ireland will reach the finals in Austria in July but just as soon as his immediate duties with the U-19s are fulfilled, Stokes will be heading to the US as part of the senior Irish squad for the friendlies against Ecuador and Bolivia.

If Stokes is required by Sean McCaffrey for the match against Hungary on Friday he will fly out to join the Irish squad on Sunday and will then be in the running for the second senior friendly against Bolivia in Boston the following Saturday. But if the U19s can afford to release him after Wednesday’s game against Germany, he will travel to America with the rest of the Irish squad this Friday.

“I want to play as many games as I can for my country,” he says. “At any level that’s important. I’ve only got one cap for the seniors (against San Marino) so it’s not like I’ve been playing regularly for them even though I’ve been involved in a few squads. Unless we qualify for the finals, this is the last chance I’ll get to play for the U-19s. So I was eager to be involved.”

The Irish under-age set-up may remain a constant but, over the space of one season, everything else has changed radically in Anthony Stokes’ football life.

“This time last year I was thinking about going out on loan and trying to stake a claim for myself in the Arsenal first team,” he reflects. “Obviously that didn’t happen. But I’m delighted with how things turned out. I’m involved with a team that’s on its way up to the Premiership. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Ironically, Sunderland had an earlier chance to get Stokes but the club’s then manager Niall Quinn didn’t bite.

“I was up there for a week,” Stokes recalls, “but, for one reason or another, it didn’t happen and I ended up at Falkirk instead, which was probably a good move at the time. I really enjoyed my football in Scotland.”

How did he find the transition from the SPL to the Championship? “They’re both very physical leagues. Maybe the pace is a little bit quicker in the Championship. But if you take the top teams in Scotland, the likes of Celtic, Rangers, and Hearts, I think they’d be up there with the top teams in the Championship. So it’s fairly balanced but maybe the Championship has a slight edge.”

A staggering 16 goals for Falkirk had Stokes splashed all over the back pages but, in Sunderland, he didn’t exactly take up where he left off north of the border.

“It’s been up and down,” he concedes. “Obviously, I’ve had one or two upsets with Roy Keane. But that’s all been put aside now and he’s been fine about it. I finished the season well enough, started the last two games and scored in the last game (against Luton). Hopefully I can bring a bit of form into the Irish set-up now and kick on for next year.”

The most public “upset” saw Stokes left behind when he was a few minutes late for the team coach to a game in Barnsley. Was he ever worried about the long-term implications for his career at the club? “Not really. I spoke to the manager about it. Two days later, he called me into the office, sat me down and said that that was the end of the situation and it was forgotten about. To be fair, he was very good about it. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all in the past now.”

Of Keane, he said: “The results speak for themselves — I wasn’t there at the start of the season but I know from speaking to the lads that he completely changed the atmosphere in the club, amongst the players and amongst the staff. The lads were saying that they used to be going out half-expecting to lose.

“He’s changed everything. There’s a winning mentality in the club now, and you can see it on the pitch.”

Has he spoken to the boss about next season yet? “I have a three-year contract so I hope I’ll still be there next season,” he laughs. “I haven’t actually spoken to Roy about it. But the fact that I started the last two games is, hopefully, a positive sign.”

Meantime, the greening of Sunderland, in tandem with putting down his own roots, has helped Stokes to gradually find his feet on Wearside.

“There are an awful lot of Irish lads there and it was great in helping me settle in. But when I first went there, I was three or fourth months in a hotel and my head was done in for a while. But I have my own place now. I wouldn’t use living in the hotel but I felt the last four or five weeks of the season I was settling in a bit better. Just being in the house and the fact that it was easier for my family to come up for a week or two and stay – I think all that helped.”

Republic of Ireland U19’s (v Buglaria, Drogheda, 7pm): Henderson (Aston Villa), Davies (Reading), Spillane (Norwich), Lowry (Aston Villa), Nolan (Blackburn), Judge (Blackburn), Ryan (Liverpool), Power (Nottingham Forest), Bayly (Leeds), Rooney (Stoke), Stokes (Sunderland).