Sinclair Armstrong: I thought I knew a lot about football, until I met Damien Duff

ONTO LATVIA: Ireland manager Jim Crawford and Sinclair Armstrong celebrate Sam Curtis scoring the winning goal against Turkey. Pic: ©INPHO/Aleksandar Djorovic

Sinclair Armstrong admits he thought he knew almost everything about football by the age of 15. And then he met Damien Duff.

The Bristol City striker worked with the Republic of Ireland legend when they were both on the books at the Shamrock Rovers U15s, meaning he was also subjected to Duff’s infamous 6am training sessions before school.

“I felt this guy was psycho, bringing in 15-year-old kids at six o’clock in the morning, I was thinking ‘What the hell am I doing?’ joked Armstrong.

“You’re half asleep but then again, you’re training, I think at the time there was an uproar at him doing it.

“But at the time, I remember thinking, maybe it’s just a facade, then I had to get up at half five in the morning to get to training before school.

“Listen I enjoyed my time under Damien Duff, I learned a lot from him 100 percent. He has been a big influence to get me where I am today.

“I think when I was quite young, I was a bit stubborn if I’m being honest. You get to a certain age, maybe 14 or 15, where you’re a little bit arrogant and I said to myself you know I do probably know quite a lot about football, until I met Damien Duff.

“When I played with him at Shamrock Rovers Under-15s and then I just said I actually know nothing about football.”

Those early sessions seemed to have served the 21-year-old well as earned a move to Queens Park Rangers before signing for fellow English Championship side Bristol City during the summer on a four-year-deal believed to have cost the Robins €3 million, with €700,000 reportedly going to Shamrock Rovers.

But for now, his club career is at the back of his mind as he is aiming to fire Ireland to victory against Latvia in Tallaght Stadium on Tuesday night which, following on from their triumph against a hostile crowd in Istanbul and a talented Turkish side, could put them top of their U21 Euros qualification group with two games remaining, if Italy were to be beaten in Norway.

“It was quite hostile to be fair,” added Armstrong, who has been capped at senior level.

“I wouldn’t say any of us were rattled. We took it as it was, very loud. It probably was the craziest atmosphere I’ve played in in U21 football, but we won the game and that’s all that matters.

“In the Turkey game there was a point in it where some of us would have probably taken a point but then again for us to win the game was unbelievable.

“Latvia is a game where anything can happen, and the gaffer has told us not to get complacent.

“If you are complacent, you lose that hunger and desire to go out there and win the game, you think it’s going to be easy but it’s not going to be like that.

“We 100% know Latvia, we played them late last year and only won the game 2-1, we know we will be in for a test.

“I’d say it is the biggest game of the group as of right now, but we are 100% focused on getting a good result tomorrow.”

This crunch clash is taking place in Dublin due to logistic reasons and to aid recovery following the long distance travelled to and from the Turkish capital in a short space of time.

The potentially decisive home game against Norway in October will be played at Turner’s Cross in Cork but manager Jim Crawford, and his players, aren’t thinking that far ahead.

“The message has been consistent throughout the campaign but it’s just when you get closer to the end and you get closer to what you want to achieve… everybody understands, all the players.

“I’m sure they’re all looking at the group table, permutations but when they come into camp it’s just a steady ‘look, our narrow focus is on the next game.’

“In order for us to achieve what we want to achieve in the game, we have a game plan that we want to work on so there’s very little talk in our team meetings about qualifying and this and that.

“It’s more about how we are going to win this game,” concluded Crawford.