Duff issues rallying call to team-mates

DAMIEN DUFF is challenging his team-mates to carry their World Cup form into the fight for Euro 2012 qualification.

After beating Paraguay 2-1 at the RDS, Duff and his colleagues are now hoping to add the Algerians’ scalp at the same venue tomorrow evening, a game which will be watched by Fabio Capello’s assistant Franco Baldini as the England management team use the opportunity to run the rule over their World Cup Group C opponents.

There’s no South African adventure for the Irish to look forward to, of course, but Duff reckons that this week’s games are all about developing momentum to take through August’s friendly against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium and on into the European Championship qualifiers the following month,.

“That’s the idea,” says the Fulham man. “There are no real friendlies nowadays, they are all important games.”

Roy Keane has been known to beg to differ but Duff is of the view that friendlies are not just there for the purposes of bringing through the young ‘uns.

“You get a bit of stick from some quarters for turning up for friendlies but I don’t see why that should happen,” he reflects. “I know Roy’s had a pop at Shay (Given) in the past over this but, for me, it’s always an honour and a pleasure to play for my country. It was a good night for us on Tuesday and hopefully we’ll have another good one against the Algerians tomorrow.”

Goal-scorer Liam Lawrence was similarly pleased with the night’s work.

“It’s another win and we proved again that we can beat top teams. They are a good team as they beat Brazil and Argentina on the way to qualifying so it’s a good win for us.”

The Stoke man – though he seems certain not to still be one at the start of next season – clearly relishes international football.

“I love it, I love every minute of it. It’s an honour and fantastic to be training with these players and playing against some of the best players in the world. I hope it continues. I’ve always said that if a manager shows faith in me I will repay him with performances. Luckily so far I have managed to do that and hopefully I can keep playing well.”

Man of the match Kevin Doyle had words of praise for the new boys in green, three of whom made their debuts on Tuesday.

“The fact that the manager used so many of them shows he has lots of confidence in them and will use them in the future because he doesn’t use caps away cheaply,” he says.

“I think we have a very settled team now as well as some new players in the squad to freshen things up.”

Goalkeeper Keiren Westwood admits that he was almost caught out by the change of ends before kick-off in the RDS as he bowed his head in prayer.

“I always say a little prayer, I have done it since I started,” he explains. “It’s just something I do, just praying to people from the family who have passed on and to God.

“But when I looked up, the lads were up the other side so I had a little jog up there. I tried to get Robbie to stay where we were as the sun was blazing, but we ended up losing the toss and it killed us. The sun was ridiculously low and the cap didn’t do anything for me.”

Nonetheless, the Coventry City man was happy enough with his performance even if he was unable to celebrate a clean sheet at the end.

But he says that Giovanni Trapattoni has not spoken to him so far about the possibility of starting the European Championship campaign should Shay Given not have fully recovered from his shoulder injury by September.

“I don’t see why the manager should,” he says. “The boss makes the decisions and I just live by what he does. He’s the manager at the end of the day and I just do what I’m told. I’m just looking to play as many minutes as I can and I’m just delighted to be in the set-up. It’s a chance for me to establish myself in the squad and anything else is a bonus.”