Burgess called in to lead Irish attack

Don Givens, convinced that there were signs of improvement in the closing games of the recent European Championship qualifying campaign, has kept faith with the bulk of the players from the side which beat Cyprus in Longford for tonight's under-21 international against Denmark at Turner's Cross.

Joe Murphy, Brian Shelley, Dwayne Matthis and Ben Burgess are all drafted into this evening's starting line-up, but the remaining seven are given the chance to nail down their places in the travelling parties for the coming trips to Austria and Toulon, where Givens will complete the task of preparing his side for the new qualifying campaign in the autumn.

"This is an important game in so far as it's important that we keep up the progression that we'd made against Holland and Cyprus last year," he said. "I expect that the Danes will provide sterner opposition than the Cypriots, but this game still represents an opportunity.

"It's the first of at least seven games that we have coming up, after which we should be well set to give the qualifying campaign a real go.

"So far," he added, "I'm very pleased with the way the few days have gone, everybody's trained well, including the lads from the eircom league, and there's a real sense that the squad is moving forward."

Jim Goodwin, released by Celtic last week, will partner John O'Shea in the centre of defence, while in front of them Matthis and Burgess are preferred to Shaun Byrne and Graham Barrett in midfield and attack respectively.

"I saw Ben play a couple of times at Blackburn and he didn't really impress, but when we got together at Bisham Abbey recently he was excellent and he's going well with Brentford at the moment, he's scoring goals in a team that's winning games, and that brings confidence."

Tonight's match will also mark the inauguration of the new lights at Turner's Cross.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: (under-21 v Denmark): Murphy (Tranmere); Shelley (Bohemians), Goodwin (unattached), O'Shea (Manchester United), Foy (Nottingham Forest); Miller (Celtic), Matthis (Huddersfield Town), Doyle (Celtic); Butler (Sunderland), Burgess (Blackburn Rovers/Brentford), Reid (Nottingham Forest).