Seamus Coleman’s friendship with Steven Naismith being put on hold

Ireland full-back Seamus Coleman has admitted things could get spicy when he squares up against Everton team-mate Steven Naismith on Saturday week.

Attacker Naismith was a key player in Scotland’s 1-0 victory over Ireland last November when a rehearsed corner caught Coleman and Ireland off-guard for the solitary goal.

As Aiden McGeady outlined on Tuesday, the Irish quartet at Goodison Park have been forced to listen to the Scot goading since but the return fixture is the opportunity to get their own back.

“Quite a few of us are friendly with Naisy, we respect him as a player, but there’ll be no friends on the day,” the Donegal man told Everton TV.

“Hopefully Naisy isn’t his usual self in that one - I have already had a few little digs at him just in case!

“We’ll not be holding anything back on the day. He understands that and we understand that. For the 90 minutes, we’re enemies as such.

“We need to win to get back in the group. Unfortunately they beat us in Scotland but there wasn’t much in the game. Both sides didn’t play to their capabilities. We have a lot more to give and hopefully we can take the points this time around at home.

“We switched off from a set-piece which is something we’ll have to be careful of again. Everyone will need to know their jobs. We’ve got Premier League players – I know they do too – but in front of our fans we’ll be doing all we can to get the win.” Ahead of that Euro 2016 qualifier, Coleman is relishing the visit of England for Sundays friendly.

“It’s always good to play against lads you play club football with and England have a few Everton boys,” he said.

“We played them two years ago and I faced Jags (Phil Jagielka) and Bainesy (Leighton Baines) but this time Ross (Barkley) is involved so it will be good to play against him. There will be a great atmosphere for the England game, there always is. England will bring a few over and our fans always support us well.

“We are using that as build-up to our main game against Scotland. In our eyes there is only one big game this summer and that is Scotland.”