How the Irish fared: Judge brace bails out Brentford

Alan Judge hopes his match-winning brace for Brentford in the 2-1 Championship win over Rotherham on Saturday will have given Martin O’Neill food for thought ahead of next month’s Euro 2016 play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Judge was in the Ireland squad ahead of this month’s double-header against Germany and Poland and, though he didn’t get to make his senior international debut, he found the experience beneficial.

“Going away with the Republic of Ireland gave me a lot of confidence,” he said. “It was good to go away and have a week with the Irish team and see what the standard is like and see where you want to get to. I have come back and hopefully I have shown that (I can get there). With the play-offs coming up that is a huge incentive for me but the lads that are there are doing very well. All I can do is do what I can on the pitch and hopefully those two goals will help me.”