Cox ready to fill Robbie’s boots

SIMON COX was one among a number of Irish players who found it impossible to sleep during the squad’s arduous trip home from the Pyrenees over the weekend and he may well have endured another restless repose last night.

With Robbie Keane almost certainly ruled out of tomorrow’s decisive European qualifier against Armenia, the spotlight now turns towards Cox, his West Brom team-mate Shane Long and Stoke City’s Jonathan Walters.

One of them will be told today that they will start alongside Kevin Doyle. Form and experiences points to Long as the logical choice and Cox almost seemed inclined to agree last night given his low expectations prior to this double-header.

“I never expected to be in this squad,” he said after what has been a frustrating start to the season with West Brom. “I was sat at home when it was announced and I said to my missus ‘oh, I made it’ and she asked if I didn’t expect to.

“I said, ‘well, I’ll put it like this, there are people playing week in week out and scoring and I don’t play’ so I was surprised that I made it but the manager obviously sees something that I bring to the team that maybe somebody else doesn’t.”

That ‘something’ may well stand to him this week. Cox has spoken before about his belief that there are similarities between his style of play and Keane’s and Giovanni Trapattoni has preferred him to Long before.

With Kevin Doyle ruled out of the game against Macedonia in Skopje last June, the expectation was that Long would be promoted but Trapattoni opted for Cox who had made his debut against Northern Ireland just the month before.

“The boss will make his decision tomorrow and I will be happy with whatever he decides,” said the 23-year old. “We as a team are obviously devastated to lose him.

“He’s a good, quality player but that opens the door for someone else and that’s how other people sometimes get recognised, through a bit of bad luck for somebody. Whoever does take his place will be fully equipped to handle the situation.”

The truth is that some look better equipped than others.

Walters is playing regularly with Stoke but the second of his two caps – both in friendlies — came against Wales last February while Cox’s inability to claim a regular berth in Roy Hodgson’s first team must surely count against him.

His last game of football was an 83-minute stint against Everton in Goodison Park on September 21. It was only his second start of the season for club or country. The other was a run-out against Bournemouth, also in the Carling Cup, when he claimed his only goal.

“I’m probably in the worst position in football at the minute: I’m liked by the manager but I just can’t get in his starting eleven. If he wasn’t like that then it would be quite easy for me to go out on loan.”

Cox’s situation is unusual in the sense that the man barring his way into his club team is also his chief rival for a starting berth for his country tomorrow but his professional disappointment hasn’t prevented him from taking a professional attitude.

Cox welcomed Long’s signing when it was announced at The Hawthorns during the summer and the pair aren’t ignoring one another as they shared a row of seats and passed the flight back from Andorra with games of Scrabble and Monopoly.

“No, because West Brom paid a lot of money for him, or a bit of money, whatever it was. It came with a bit of pressure but he has answered his critics straight away. He has started to repay his price with three goals in six games.

“That is good centre-forward play and you can’t argue with that. He has come in and scored goals which is what West Brom bought him for and I’m really happy for him. I can’t sit there on the bench and say he is rubbish because he’s not. He’s playing and scoring goals.”