St Ledger primed for biggest test yet

IT’S only when Sean St Ledger points out that he has yet to play for his country in Croke Park that the astonishing rapidity of his rise from relative obscurity and through the Irish ranks really hits home.

The Middlesbrough defender, though already a key player, still has only five caps after making his debut against Nigeria at Craven Cottage last May and he has featured in cities as diverse as Sofia, Nicosia and Limerick since.

“I haven’t been in (Croke Park) but I’ve been past it,” he said. “It’s an absolute monster of a stadium and I’m sure the atmosphere will be great, especially with it being a night kick-off and the fans having been in the pub. I’m sure it’s going to be nice and loud.”

Want to know just how steep St Ledger’s rise has been? Six months ago, when Ireland travelled to Bari to play Italy for the first time in Group 8, he wasn’t even in the squad.

It’s been a long, long way from there to here.

“At the time, it was a major disappointment not to be involved,’’ he recalled. “When all the fixtures came out, you looked at the two Italy games to see when they were. I think every fan and every player does that.

“To be involved now is majorly exciting. I might be the only player in the team playing in the Championship so to be playing alongside players like Robbie (Keane) and Dunney (Richard Dunne) is great. It would be my debut in Dublin and I’m looking forward to it.”

St Ledger may be a centre-half by trade but he owes his big break to the injuries that have plagued Steve Finnan who wore the number two jersey for the opening games against Georgia and Montenegro.

With Finnan unavailable, Giovanni Trapattoni turned to Paul McShane and Stephen Kelly to hold his right flank but neither man inspired confidence, which forced the manager to juggle his resources.

Richard Dunne and John O’Shea’s central partnership was sacrificed on the altar of expediency. The Manchester United man shuffled across and St Ledger was parachuted in to the middle for the trip to Bulgaria.

He has acquitted himself just fine up to now but the arrival of men like Alberto Gilardino, Antonio Di Natalae and Vincenzo Iaquinta to Dublin would represent his sternest test yet.

St Ledger is still hoping to prove he can survive at this level but mixing it with the world champions shouldn’t do his hopes any harm, something he acknowledges while adding the rider that it also leaves a man more exposed to criticism and ridicule if it all goes Pete Tong.

So far, so good though.

His performances alongside Dunne in Sofia last June was followed three months later by a loan move from Preston North End to Boro with a view to a permanent deal in January.

The feeling at the time was that St Ledger had moved sideways rather than vertically – an opinion backed up by the current Championship table where just one point separates the clubs.

That said, Boro do lie third right now and the pressures at a club used to rubbing shoulders with Liverpool and Manchester United tend to weigh more heavily than those at his previous employers. That much was brought home to him a few weeks back when Gareth Southgate’s side claimed one point from nine and the grumbles grew but he has no regrets about his choice or his decision not to wait for an offer from the Premier League.

“It’s a tough decision and that did cross my mind. When I spoke to the manager at Preston, he said ‘look, if you play in the Italy game and play well, there could be other doors and avenues open’ but sometimes you need to strike when the iron’s hot,’’ St Ledger said.

“I could go into another game and break my leg and never play again.

“So, I took the decision and I think I made the right one. I thought that there was no better place to learn than from an England centre-half.”

That education continues tomorrow at Croke Park.