Trap keen for a fond farewell

It will be both an hello and farewell friendly at the Aviva Stadium this afternoon.

The hello will be for James McClean who makes his first full start for his country, and the farewell for a squad which jets off to a training camp in Italy tomorrow morning, en route to the European Championship finals in Poland.

For a while this week, the expectation was that Giovanni Trapattoni would be forced to send out something resembling a ‘B’ team against Bosnia today but, after a couple of niggles and minor knocks cleared up, it turns out that there are no shortage of familiar faces in the starting line-up. And the manager has even been afforded the flexibility to assess Darron Gibson as well as McClean in place of Keith Andrews and Aiden McGeady, at least for the first half. Of the other first-choice men, only Shay Given and John O’Shea are missing, allowing their injuries more time to recover. That means number two keeper Keiren Westwood and late call-up Paul McShane at right-back both start this afternoon.