Irish trio ruled out of friendlies
Speaking after last night’s 1-0 win for his senior team against Paul Doolin’s U23’s in a training game in Malahide, Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni confirmed that both Dunne and Kilbane are laid low with achilles injuries while, following discussions with Wigan boss Roberto Martinez, it was agreed that a fatigued McCarthy could do with some more rest at the end of a long season.
With some eight players expected to come in on Sunday, Trapattoni said that he would now be asking all of his developmental squad – who have been training this week – to stay on for the period covering the friendly games.
“They all deserve to remain and, anyway, we need two teams for training,” said the manager with a smile.
Even Everton’s Shane Duffy, who was expected to be ruled out pending the outcome of a case brought before the Court of Arbritration in Sport by the IFA, is hoping that he will have news by Friday which could mean he is available to earn his first cap for the Republic.
“I don’t know the actual story but I’ll find out on Friday,” said the 18-year-old Derry native after catching the eye in last night’s game.
“The international clearance hasn’t come through so hopefully I’ve impressed enough to get into the squad next season.”
Trapattoni said that he was pleased with the commitment shown by both sides in last night’s game.
“For us, I thought (Derby’s) Paul Green played well. Also Keith Fahey, though he suffered a little by playing in the middle of the midfield. But we wanted to look at different options. Duffy will get even better with confidence and Greg Cunningham and Shane Long did well too. Also, a good surprise for us was Cillian Sheridan.”
Of the U23’s, he selected Shamrock Rovers’ Billy Dennehy and Galway United’s Stephen O’Donnell for favourable mention.
“We will continue to monitor these players,” he said. “They can aspire to breaking into the senior squad.”
Paul Doolin made a point of thanking the Italian for the chance to get in a game which he felt was useful preparation for next Wednesday’s International Challenge Trophy match against England in Waterford.
“For fellas who trained together only once in the morning yesterday, I thought we did very well at certain points in the game,” said the U23 boss.
The concept of a warm-weather training camp had never seemed further away than at windswept, cold and drizzly Gannon Park but at least the players got to keep warm in a reasonably full-blooded and fast-paced game which made up for what it lacked in drama with a keen competitive edge.
For the senior side, Hibs’ Anthony Stokes started instead of Liam Lawrence on the right-hand side of midfield which, with Reading’s Shane Long on the opposite flank, meant that there were two strikers behind the front two of Newcastle’s Leon Best and Cillian Sheridan.
And it was Stokes who got the game’s only goal in the 22nd minute. Sheridan did the hard work, cutting in from the left and drawing Darren Quigley out of position before squaring to the Hibs man who found the back of the net despite the best efforts of two defenders to protect the goal.
In the second half, Stokes – now back in his normal striking position after Lawrence had replaced Sheridan – might have doubled his tally but his downward header from Keith Fahey’s cross went inches wide. At the other end, U23 substitute Paddy Madden did have the ball in the net, only for his effort to be ruled out for offside and, as Paul Doolin’s men increased the pressure in search of an equaliser, senior ‘keeper Joe Murphy, who’d come on at the break, found himself much busier in the second 45 than Keiren Westwood had been in the first.
But with Everton’s Shane Duffy and Celtic’s Darren O’Dea commanding at the back, the seniors held out for a 1-0 win.
Afterwards, Lawrence said that he was impressed with the opposition.
“It was a battle out there,” he said. “They’re good lads, they have good quality. They’ve proved that there’s good players over here. There’s a lot of competition in our squad and everyone is aiming to do well. It’s been a tough workout for the lads.”
O’Dea had also relished the challenge. “It was a good chance to show the manager what we can do,” he said.
“It’s a completely different environment to training. Nothing compares to playing games and they certainly gave us a game. It was fantastic.”
For newcomer Paul Green, the convoluted effort involved in simply joining up with the Irish squad has been worthwhile.
“It’s been tough,” said the Derby midfielder. “I was on a six o’clock flight from East Midlands, then that got cancelled so I was told to get to Holyhead. It was a three and a half hour journey to there, then three and a half hours to Dublin. So it was a good journey to get here and I’m delighted to get the first game out of the way.”
The training camp resumes today with a game lined up against the Irish Junior team on Friday before the well-known faces come in to join up with the rest of the squad on Sunday.
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