'Dream come true' for McAteer as he scores his first senior goal in a player of the match performance

Kasey McAteer found out last night that he was getting his first start at the Aviva.

Fri, 06 Jun, 2025 - 22:14

Paul Dowling

Kasey McAteer revealed that his first senior goal for the Republic of Ireland was like a ‘dream come true’.

The 23-year-old put the Boys in Green ahead on Friday in the international friendly against Senegal at the Aviva Stadium “I’m over the moon. You can tell by my celebrations - it was like a dream come through” beamed the Leicester City wide man.

“It was my first start at the Aviva. Hopefully, there’s many more to come. It was good to get myself on the scoresheet. It was a shame that we couldn't hold on for the result to get the win. Senegal are a really good team. We'll take it in our stride.” The visitors came into the contest unbeaten in 20 fixtures. But the ending when both teams flared up didn't have the feeling of an end of season friendly.

“We went into the game saying it wasn't a friendly. For us, it was about having a good performance. And getting a result. Both teams wanted to win the game. That’s the nature of it. We want to win every game we play. It was a good game. But we were unlucky we couldn't hold on in the end” stated McAteer.

The winger only found out that was in the first 11 of the Irish starting line-up late on Thursday evening.

“I only found out last night. I was buzzing when the gaffer (Heimir Hallgrímsson) told me. So I had to switch my mind to focus on the game, and give my all for the team. And the country. Hopefully, the fan saw me do that tonight.”

On his goal, and only the second score that the African side had conceded in their last 741 minutes of football in all competitions, McAteer said “It was a great save by their keeper. I was surprised that he saved it. I thought ‘oh no’. But luckily it ricocheted into my path, and I took a touch then just from point blank, it went in. So, I'm over the moon with that.” He added “It was all about instinct. I'm not going to miss from there. If I miss from there, there’s going to be a problem. I'm just over the moon to score my first goal.”

The Foxes player believes there is a bot of momentum around the Irish squad presently.

“We had two good results in the last camp. We've now had a good result tonight against a really good team in the end. They are ranked higher than us. Not many teams get results against them. We have to look after ourselves going into the next game (against Luxembourg on Tuesday) and try to get the win there.” With the World Cup qualifiers looming in September, McAteer put his name into the reckoning for the right side of attack position up for grabs.

“Listen, we've got some great players, the likes of Festy (Ebosele). He’s really pushing, We can push each other together to get better. The main thing is to get to the World Cup. That’s our aim. Every friendly game, we need to build and build. Hopefully, we can get ourselves there in the future.”