Patient Westwood ready to seize the day

THIS is it. The day every Irish soccer fan has dreaded. The nightmare scenario.

Shortly before 7.45pm, an Irish team will walk out into the Aviva Stadium glasshouse and Shay Given — with his record 110 caps and 15-year back catalogue of crucial saves — won’t be among them after suffering a shoulder injury in training late last month.

It will be like Corrie without Ken Barlow.

Over four years have elapsed since an Irish team last lined up for a competitive international without their record cap holder. Wayne Henderson — who announced his retirement on Tuesday — deputised for the near-calamitous tie against San Marino at the Seravelle Stadium.

The Donegal man actually missed most of that particular campaign with a perforated bowel injury and subsequent groin problem and it didn’t work out too well for anyone concerned.

Henderson conceded a soft 87th minute equaliser that almost cost the three points that grim February night against the group minnows after Paddy Kenny had already watched five goals fly past him in Cyprus.

Not the ideal precedent, then.

That few months aside, Given has been an immovable object between the sticks for his country. His insistence on playing every minute possible of every game, no matter how trivial, has never been anything but admirable on a personal level but it has always left Ireland dangerously light on battle-hardened cover.

Dean Kiely, for one, got heartily sick of it. Twice.

Kiely first walked away from international football in 2003 when he thought he was set to start for a Euro 2004 qualifier against Albania only for Brian Kerr to stick with Given. He left for good six years later when Giovanni Trapattoni gave Given the nod for a routine friendly against Nigeria at Craven Cottage.

Many others, including Henderson, Paddy Kenny and Joe Murphy did learn to bite their lips and report stoically for duty time and again. So too has Keiren Westwood who will be rewarded for his patience when he dons the gloves against Macedonia in the Group B qualifier tonight. It will be his sixth cap and his first in a competitive international.

“I’ve come in and been happy when selected,” he says diplomatically. “It is a great honour being here and working with Shay and Kells (Alan Kelly) and the rest of the keepers. When you are at your club, you don’t train with Premier League players so it is always a great experience. I have always worked hard and kept my head down.

“Shay has been great. He helps me all the time in training. I can’t thank him enough. I spoke to him when he suffered his injury and I obviously feel for him. He has just had some rotten luck this past 12 months now I wish him the best.”

One of the most highly-rated goalkeepers outside of England’s top tier, the Coventry City player has already received a public nod of approval from the absent Given in recent days but the elder man’s heretofore omnipresence has left him with little in the way of personal experience with which to negotiate such a significant staging post in his career.

And yet, his promotion may well have come at the most opportune time for both him and his country as Given has had to act as understudy to Joe Hart at Manchester City this season and looked rusty at times in recent Ireland games.

Compare that with Westwood who has already played 37 times for Coventry this season and is attracting interest from some of Britain’s bigger clubs — Celtic, Everton and Newcastle United among them. Add in the consideration that he will be stepping up to the plate on home soil against a mid-ranked side and it could clearly have been worse.

Like earlier this month when, with Given already ruled out, he was helped off the field after damaging a hip in the 4-1 home defeat to Bristol City. That was when fingers really began reaching for the panic button as neither Darren Randolph or David Forde — Trap’s other two keepers this week — have yet to earn a single cap.

Thankfully, a scan two days later revealed only minor damage and Westwood sat out the midweek visit to Doncaster on the advice of the physio but against the wishes of his then-manager Aidy Boothroyd before returning the following weekend.

His reappearance coincided with yet another City defeat, at home to Hull City, one that extended a dire run of form which has seen the club slip to fifth from bottom in the Championship and resulted in Boothroyd being ushered out through a well-oiled exit door for managers at the Ricoh Arena.

With his contract due to expire this summer, the impression is that Westwood will follow some of his old bosses onto pastures new and the Premier League or SPL would be the next natural step for a man who has moved slowly but surely up the ladder from the Conference to League One with Carlisle United and on to the second tier with Coventry. “Around January time the chairman was in the paper saying ‘if we get an offer we are going to sell him’ so I was literally waiting. I’ve obviously not spoken to anybody and to pick up the papers is not ideal but what can you do?

“I will just have to wait and see what happens.”

A nation does likewise tonight.