Doyle: we turned a corner in Croker

KEVIN DOYLE’S career as an international footballer might only have started with Steve Staunton’s debut as an international manager, but in the rollercoaster 17 months which have elapsed since that 3-0 victory over Sweden at Lansdowne Road, the Reading striker has accelerated from rookie to comparative veteran in the Irish set-up.

Tonight in Aarhus, Doyle is set to gain only his 10th cap, but in the context of a youthful Irish panel — made all the more so by the absence of Shay Given and Damien Duff — the Wexford man will be one of Ireland’s best-known names.

“It’s strange,” Doyle reflects, “and I don’t even have double figures in caps. I was only thinking about this the other day. When I first came in, it was into a squad that had played in a World Cup and it was a bit weird because they were all stars that I’d seen on TV and I was only starting up. I’d been working in my parents’ pub during the 2002 World Cup.