Coleman keeps his cool

EAMON DUNPHY got quite worked up on the box on Friday night about the fact that Seamus Coleman, a player he felt should have been in Ireland’s starting line-up, hadn’t even made the bench in Andorra.

Coleman admits he shared the sense of frustration but, in that slow-talking Donegal way of his, certainly isn’t about to blow his top over it.

“Everyone’s got opinions in football and it’s good to hear the good things and not so good to hear the bad things,” he says.

“But you get to a stage where it doesn’t really bother you, the good or the bad.

“Personally, I just need to do what I can to get on the bench or the pitch.

“I was very disappointed on Friday. But there were another five or six lads up in the stand in the same situation.

“I don’t really want to be sitting in the stands. But once the decision is made, you’re supporting your team and you’re hoping the lads do well because it would be fantastic for the country to qualify. So I’m not going to throw my toys out of the pram. I’m not like that. I want to be involved but if that isn’t the case I’ll just work harder.

“Obviously, I was very disappointed on Friday night. But there were another five or six lads up in the stand in the same situation. Being a professional footballer you want to be on the pitch and if not the pitch the bench. But you’ve just got to get on with it, work hard in training and see what happens.”

The Everton man, now fully recovered from his pre-season ankle injury, also knows that qualification for next summer’s finals could yield some rich personal dividends.

“Exactly. Anything can happen in a year and by then you could be starting. We’re all together as a squad here, we’re all in the same boat and we’re all pushing in the right direction.”

The 22-year-old might still find himself knocking on Trap’s door, but one measure of Coleman’s development as a senior international is that the last time Ireland played Armenia – in September of last year, in Yerevan he was watching on television from a hotel room in Switzerland.

“I wasn’t in the squad at the time, I was in Switzerland with the U21s,” he recalls. “I think I’ve developed very well and it’s my aim to keep getting better and someday be a regular for my country. I’ve just got to keep my head down.”