Sean Maguire: ‘I’ve got my first taste of it. Now I’m looking for more’

Sean Maguire’s tantalising taste of international football has left him ravenous for more.

With about 10 minutes remaining against Moldova on Friday night, the Preston striker came off the bench at the Aviva Stadium to make his senior Ireland debut to a huge ovation from the crowd, a good portion of whom had spent at least the preceding 10 minutes pleading loudly in song for Martin O’Neill to send their man into the fray.

With Ireland leading 2-0 and coasting to victory, Maguire’s might have been no more than a cameo but, under any circumstances, a first cap for your country is a moment never to be forgotten, and even more so when it comes on home soil, in a World Cup qualifier and at a ground where the Kilkenny man had, as they say, seen the two days, in two years, in two FAI Cup finals.