New kid with a striking talent

Interview Stephen Elliot: Emmet Malone meets the young striker called into the Irish squad for the friendly against Croatia.

At this stage of their careers the likes of Robbie Keane, Damien Duff and John O'Shea have achieved much too much at senior level to be lumbered anymore with the tag of "Kerr's kids". But as he sat beside skipper Kenny Cunningham at the team hotel still looking just a tiny bit ill at ease with his new status of senior squad member Stephen Elliott didn't sound like a man who would object to that tag at all just yet.

Since his days with Belvedere when Vinny Butler first called him into an Ireland squad at under-15 level, great things have been expected of the young Dubliner who along with other young Irish stars of the time like Willo Flood and Stephen Paisley moved to Manchester City in the hope of making the big time in England.

Flood's chance has finally come in the last few weeks while Paisley returned home a year ago and now plays with Longford Town. Elliott's patience, meanwhile, ran out during the summer when he decided to drop a division and join up with Mick McCarthy at Sunderland in the hope of getting a glimpse of first team football.

Even he couldn't have foreseen quite how well the move would work out for him.

"Really I decided to go as soon as I went up there and saw the training set-up and all that. Mick didn't really have to say anything to me although he brought in a couple of other young lads during the summer and he's been great to all of us," says the 20-year-old striker who has rewarded the faith shown by the former Republic of Ireland boss with eight goals in 19 appearances, seven of them from the bench.

Kerr had played him at every level possible during his own time with the Irish underage set- up and clearly didn't need a lot of reminding as to the qualities he might offer a senior team short on natural goalscorers - or even serious prospects in that department.

"He's somebody, to be fair, who has generally been seen since the age of 15 as somebody who had a lot of promise," said the Ireland manager.

"There was an acceptance even then that he was a very good finisher, a very calm finisher; a player with a knack for getting goals.

"At under-17 level he wasn't around because of injury and he was missed but the next year we put him into a team that was a year further on than he should have been playing in and he did very well, he scored some important goals and since then he's never looked back, played with lads he was giving two years to at times but coped well and showed what he could do again last year (at the World Youth Cup) in the UAE where he did very well (scoring three goals in four games).

Since then things have moved on quickly for the youngster who took the under-21 side by storm, establishing a new scoring record of six goals after just 10 appearances, the last couple of which have come during his time with Sunderland.

"To get this call-up was still a bit of a shock," he admitted last night. "I'd seen the speculation that Brian might name me in his squad but to be honest I didn't really expect it to happen. Then the club got a fax while I was out training last week and the club secretary came out to tell me. I was thrilled.

"I grew up going to Lansdowne for games with my dad, going long to see the likes of Paul McGrath, Niall Quinn and John Aldridge so the idea of getting to play there now for Ireland is fantastic but it's not as if I'm going to let my head go down if I don't get my game.

"I know a few of the lads here in the squad already and I've enjoyed meeting the others so whatever happens the aim now will be to go back, work hard and hope that I can do enough to earn call-ups in the future."

Kerr has few doubts about his potential and though he gives nothing away about the striker's prospects of featuring tomorrow night he insists he would have no fears bout throwing him in at the deep end.

Cunningham, meanwhile, is also upbeat about Elliott's chances of making the grade. "Clearly we need to be bringing somebody like this through because we can't constantly be looking to Robbie Keane and Clinton Morrison to get us goals and everything I've seen of Stephen suggests he can be the next really big player for us in that department.

"I've been very impressed by what I've seen of him on television and I've talked to a lot of people 'bout him too and everyone seems to really rate him. Hopefully he'll get a few minutes on the pitch on Tuesday and it will come to be looked back upon as the start of another great international career.