Niall Quinn predicts goals will come for Irish duo Scott Hogan and Sean Maguire

Niall Quinn believes the goals will definitely come in the green shirt for Sean Maguire and Scott Hogan despite both strikers firing blanks in last week’s friendly defeat in Turkey.

“It was a tough game, they weren’t missing chances every five minutes,” says Quinn, Ireland’s second-highest scorer after Robbie Keane. “But I know one thing, the two of them are going back to their clubs as proper internationals now. They’ll feel bigger and better. I can only pivot it back to my experience when I first got picked for Ireland. It was a summer tournament (in Iceland, in 1986). I left a raw kid, giddy, and I came back an international a couple weeks later. I didn’t need to grow a foot, but I did in theory.

“Before Sean went to England, I said I’d take him. He really has a chance of going up the gears. Now, of course, everybody is talking about him. That creates pressure, big pressure. And Scott as well. He was flying at Brentford and then, at Villa, there’s 40-odd thousand at a Championship game, you’re expected to score and that takes getting used to. But chances will come his way at Villa, and Maguire will score. He has that ‘I’m going to score’ look about him.”