John O’Shea eyes the positives

To John O’Shea, the solution is simple.

For the Ireland defender to complete his decorated international career at the Euros in France next year, the team must find their scoring boots on home soil in 12 days’ time against Scotland.

Fourth in the Group D table at the midway point of the qualifiers, nothing less than victory over the Scots will keep Ireland’s destiny within their own hands.

While history is against this Ireland team, the man who assembles with the squad this evening fresh from helping Sunderland achieve another relegation escape is bullish about the Aviva Stadium finally coming alive on Saturday week.

“Everything is negative, negative,” observed the Waterford man yesterday. “So let’s change the home record then. We need to qualify for a tournament and results at home are the key – draws are not enough at this stage. Our problem has been not scoring enough goals. Against Scotland would be a good time to start getting wins. Going back to matches against teams that are ranked above us, we haven’t got results at home.”

Before then, there’s the small matter of England’s visit on Saturday. It’s been billed as a friendly like no other, yet O’Shea isn’t getting bogged down in sentimentality.

“No, it’s not a distraction and to win would be nice but it doesn’t matter for qualification. The main thing is getting competitiveness back into the players who haven’t played in a few weeks.”

One player who has chosen not to be involved in either of game for Ireland is Jack Grealish. Although Ireland defender Paul McShane said on Saturday that declaring for Ireland should be “an easy decision” for the dual-qualified attacker, vice-captain O’Shea is willing to accept Grealish’s vow of making up his mind in September.

“Give him as much time as he needs,” is O’Shea advice to impatient Ireland fans. “Let him make his decision and, whatever he decides, let him get on with it.

“He has had a good end to the season, even if it didn’t go to plan in Saturday’s FA Cup final. I wouldn’t say he froze. There were a lot of very experienced Aston Villa players who did as well if that was the case. Arsenal have had a fantastic end to the season, so without a doubt, it wasn’t all down to one young player’s performance.”

Meanwhile, David McGoldrick was the big winner as Ireland manager Martin O’Neill finalised his 27-man squad for a closed warm-up game against Northern Ireland on Thursday. Fellow strikers Anthony Stokes, Kevin Doyle, Simon Cox and Adam Rooney were culled from the provisional panel while Anthony Pilkington and the uncapped Alan Judge also miss out. McGoldrick, however, survives the chop despite last starting a game for Ipswich Town in February.

IRELAND FINALISED SQUAD:

D Forde, S Given, K Westwood, D Randolph; R Keogh, M Wilson, S Coleman, C Christie, J O’Shea, A Pearce, P McShane; J McCarthy, J Hendrick, S Ward, H Arter, G Whelan, A McGeady, J McClean, R Brady, S Quinn, D Meyler, W Hoolahan; R Keane, S Long, D Murphy, J Walters, D McGoldrick.