SOCCER ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:KEVIN DOYLE remains on course to earn his 24th senior cap for Ireland in tomorrow night's World Cup qualifier against Georgia with the Reading striker having come through yesterday's training sessions without any problems.
Paul McShane’s involvement in the game, however, remains very much in doubt, while Eddie Nolan’s first stint in the senior international squad lasted just 24 hours as the Preston right back, having received a late call-up, was promptly forced to return to his club with an Achilles strain.
Having watched Doyle turn in a lively performance in the end of session game at Malahide yesterday afternoon, Marco Tardelli said Doyle was in “perfect” shape despite the hefty knock he took to his head while playing over the weekend. McShane took part in the training game too, but the intention appears to have been to gauge whether the defender suffered any sort of reaction as he tries to push himself so soon after picking up a hamstring injury back at Sunderland.
“I think tomorrow we’ll decide if he stays or goes home,” said Tardelli. “But his training was fine. We hope he feels well but it’s only 10 days after the injury. It’s not very good but I think tomorrow it will be possible to know the truth about his fitness.”
With Steve Finnan already ruled out, McShane would have been expected to start again at right back if injury-free but in yesterday’s training game Trapattoni appeared to pre-empt the decision on the Wicklowman’s fitness by including Stephen Kelly in what can be taken to have been his first choice 11.
The 25-year-old, who moved from Birmingham City to Stoke City last week and played his first Premier League game since last May on Saturday, now looks to be in pole position to start a competitive international for the first time since the scoreless draw with Germany in October 2007.
Trapattoni also looks set to change things in central midfield with Blackburn’s Keith Andrews set to displace Darron Gibson in the wake of scoring on his debut against Poland and having looked increasingly comfortable in the Premier League since.
“Yeah, since the last time we met up I’ve started every Premier League game,” says the 28-year-old Dubliner just a matter of months after he was plying his trade, albeit it with a fair degree of success, in League Two with MK Dons. “The last year, year and a half has gone better than I could have imagined. Starting off where I was to get my move, then the international chance came and I’ve managed to do all right.”
It’s certainly been an improvement in terms of career trajectory after nine years at Wolves and one at Hull, a decade during which the midfielder’s fortunes repeatedly declined when managers who liked him were forced out of clubs. In Milton Keynes the pattern finally changed and at the end of last season he was named the division’s player of the year. The club’s manager, Paul Ince, stepped up to take over at Ewood Park and Andrews duly followed for a fee of around € 1.5 million.
Ince didn’t get to stick around but six months on, the purchase of Andrews is looking like an increasingly tidy piece of business. Initially seen as something of a sidekick to the departed manager, he has made sure to seize the opportunity provided to him by his former boss, holding his own and keeping his place since the arrival of Sam Allardyce.
“The best thing I ever did was to go to MK Dons, really,” he says of what he sees now as having been a key turning point in his career. “It gave me the kick up the backside I needed really. When I dropped down to that level it opened my eyes as to where I wanted to go with my career and brought it home to me that if I wanted to get there I’d have to really crack on and knuckle down.”
At that stage, achieving any international recognition must have seemed a little far fetched but the transformation of his fortunes at club level, combined with the somewhat changed role Allardyce has handed him, brought him to the brink of a first senior start for his country. “I was encouraged more attacking-wise by Paul Ince,” he says. “He wanted me to get forward and express myself. But since Sam Allardyce has come in, it’s maybe a bit more about the defensive side of things and doing more for the team.”
It’s an approach that Trapattoni has spent his first year as Ireland manager working hard to have his players embrace and Andrews is delighted to play ball with the Italian. “First and foremost I’m delighted to be in the squad, it’s something I’ve always wanted throughout my career. Thankfully the manager sees something in me that he likes and hopefully I can keep going. If I do get my chance I’ll be over the moon.”
GROUP EIGHT: HOW THEY STAND
P W D L F A Pts
Italy 4 3 1 0 6 2 10
REP OF IRELAND 3 2 1 0 3 1 7
Bulgaria 3 0 3 0 2 2 3
Montenegro 3 0 2 1 3 4 2
Georgia 4 0 2 2 2 5 2
Cyprus 3 0 1 2 2 4 1
Next up . . .
Tomorrow: Rep of Ireland v Georgia.
Saturday, March 28th: Montenegro v Italy; Rep of Ireland v Bulgaria; Cyprus v Georgia.
