Hendrick reveals Dunne’s words of consolation to Keogh

Richard Dunne made a point of seeking out Richard Keogh to offer words of consolation and encouragement after Saturday’s Championship play-off at Wembley.

While Dunne was picking up the man of the match award for his commanding performance in the heart of the QPR defence, Keogh was struggling to pick himself up after his last-minute error had gifted Rangers an unlikely winning goal.

And yesterday at Gannon Park, Keogh’s Derby County team-mate Jeff Hendrick revealed the gist of what was said in the post-match exchange between the Irish master and the Irish apprentice.

“Richie Keogh was talking to him and he (Dunne) just said to keep his head up, that these things happen but that he’d been great all season and to go and enjoy it away with the international squad now,” said Hendrick.

“He was gutted. After the game you just give him a big hug and tell him how great he’s been all year. He’s led by example in most games so we just tell him that these things happen and he’s just got to forget about it.”

That’s what 22-year-old Hendrick is trying to do too, though not before the young Dubliner is being asked by the media to reflect again on the crushing disappointment of being denied a Premier League place at the 11th hour.

“I was sad after the game, watching them go up to lift the trophy,” he said. “We’ve just got to take positives from it, take that feeling into next year and say we don’t want to go through that again. Hopefully we can hit the ground running and have a good year.”

Henrick also said he was never tempted to skip these Irish games and go off and lick his wounds some place out of the public eye.

“Nah, it’s good,” he countered, “it gets your mind off it being back playing football and training with the lads. You’re thinking about something else, the games that are coming up. It’s football and there’s going to be a winner and a loser. Unfortunately, we lost.”

The immediate helpful distraction for Hendrick is what appears to be a decent chance to add to his three caps in London on Saturday, especially given the absence for the game against Italy of established midfielders like Glenn Whelan, James McCarthy and Darron Gibson. “It would be lovely,” he said, “but I’ve always said it’s great just to be in with the squad, to train with them and learn things off them. Just take each day as it comes, train hard and see what happens.”