Cox confident young guns will come good

Simon Cox is hoping for big things from a new generation of Republic of Ireland internationals.

The 25-year-old Nottingham Forest striker has played much of his recent football for his country as an auxiliary midfielder, but was last night handed a starting berth alongside Shane Long as an out-and-out frontman with manager Giovanni Trapattoni testing the depth of his squad in a 1-0 friendly defeat by Greece.