King wary of Faroes ambush

Far away from Cardiff City Stadium tonight, there’s serious business to attend to in the Faroe Islands for Ireland U21s as they start a campaign which manager Noel King hopes culminates at the 2015 European Championships in the Czech Republic.

King, in his first full campaign at the helm, narrowly missed out on a play-off last year and knows that nothing less than three points in Toftir tonight will suffice against the group’s bottom seeds if they’re to challenge Germany, Montenegro and Romania for qualification.

Despite a couple of absentees through suspension, Anthony Forde and Derrick Williams, and Giovanni Trapattoni’s reluctance to allow the still-eligible Robbie Brady and Jeff Hendrick step back from senior duty to the U21s, King believes his squad would suffer the fate of Russia and Denmark who left the Islands red-faced having dropped points in recent campaigns.