St Ledger continuing remarkable turnaround

Sean St Ledger is set to continue his rise from TV reality show bad boy to established international defender when the Republic of Ireland face Bulgaria in their pivotal World Cup qualifier on Saturday.

St Ledger was portrayed as a sulky troublemaker during his time as a youngster at Peterborough in the Sky TV programme 'Big Ron Manager', in which Ron Atkinson attempted to revive the fortunes of the club.

Now 24, the Preston centre-half made an impressive debut for the Republic in the 1-1 friendly draw with Nigeria on Friday.

So much so, manager Giovanni Trapattoni is considering partnering St Ledger with Richard Dunne, switching John O’Shea to right-back, as he looks for the win which would take them top of Group Eight.

“I think his performance on Friday was outstanding and the confidence that will have given him means playing on Saturday would not be a problem for him,” said Manchester City skipper Dunne.

“The main thing from that game on Friday is that it has given the manager more options, he can probably change the team a little bit for different games.

“Whatever happens, whether it is Sean or Paul McShane or John O’Shea, we can rely on them.

“I think we performed okay together. Nigeria didn’t really get in behind us and cause us too many problems but it’s one game and it went well – it’s all about building defensive partnerships so we’ll see how it goes.”

Bulgaria came away from Croke Park with a point in March without Dunne’s club-mates Valeri Bojinov and Martin Petrov, as well as Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov, and with all three available will be a different proposition in Sofia.

“Valeri’s a very sharp player, if anything spills around the box he’s usually on the end of it and he doesn’t miss too many,” added Dunne.

“Himself, Petrov and Berbatov, if they come back into the team, can really cause us problems.

“But we’re all really keen to get out to Bulgaria now and get the three points. It’s a game we’re looking forward to so fingers crossed we can get the result and go on holiday in a good mood.”