McClean's confidence shaken in Poland

Soccer: James McClean has claimed his experiences at Euro 2012 dented his confidence and stifled his progress at club level since.

The Sunderland winger’s rapid rise to prominence last season resulted in a call-up to Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad for the trip to Poland in June, but the campaign proved a miserable one after he saw just 14 minutes of action in the 4-0 defeat to Spain.

His form this season for his club has been a long way short of the standard he set last year, when, in the six months from his debut against Balckburn Rovers in December, he established himself as a firm fans’ favourite at the Stadium of Light.

"I went to the Euros full of confidence," McClean told the The Northern Echoahead of today's trip to face Stoke City. "Personally it didn't go too well for me and it knocked my confidence. I wanted to come back and kick on from last season but so far I haven't managed to do that.

"As a person I went in to the Euros on the back of a really good season. In my mind I was believing I should be at least getting a chance. Otherwise why was I in the squad?

"The whole Ireland thing is out in the public. It's really knocked my confidence. I thought I had a good season but I still couldn't get in the team. There's no point sitting here and sulking about it. I just have to work hard, prove people wrong and that's the attitude I have to take."

McClean has vented his frustration before, most notably on Twitter after the narrow 2-1 World Cup qualifier win over Kazakhstan in Astana last month, when he was an unused substitute.

He apologised to his team-mates for the online outburst, but his frustration with his international experience since declaring for the Republic of Ireland last year clearly remains.

Thankfully, he says, Sunderland manager and fellow Derryman Martin O’Neill is the right man to get his game back on track.

"The manager (O’Neill) has been absolutely first class for me," said McClean. "He has looked after me a lot. He has kept me on the straight and narrow. He has told me off when I needed him to. The biggest thing is he is just giving me advice. He has been top class with me since he came in.

"He is probably the best manager to repair my confidence. I have never really spoken about the whole Euros experience, or the Ireland thing, in general, but even after the Euros, events have probably knocked my confidence a little bit. I know in myself I need to move on from that a little and prove the Ireland manager wrong and get in to the team."