IRELAND 'B' CHALLENGE GAME: Emmet Malonetalks to Caleb Folan who is anxious to show Giovanni Trapattoni what he can do

STEVE STAUNTON'S first attempt to hand Caleb Folan an international cap didn't win the then Republic of Ireland manager too many new admirers, but Giovanni Trapattoni was sufficiently taken with the player yesterday to suggest he will elevate him to the senior squad once tomorrow night's challenge match against Nottingham Forest is safely out of the way.

The Italian's predecessor admitted when announcing his squad for the home game against Wales in March last year that most of his knowledge about the striker came from watching him on "the Sky", before describing him as one of those players who "accidentally bumps into you or stands on your toes and doesn't know he's doing it. He's not," Staunton concluded, "pleasing on the eye."

Apparently he wasn't easy to get hold of either, with Staunton explaining he had yet to talk to Folan at the time he named him in a squad for the first time on the basis "he's a typical Premiership footballer that doesn't answer his phone".

Staunton wasn't alone in experiencing difficulties on this front, for Folan apparently changed his number at one stage as a result of press interest and the persistence of Nigel Worthington, who was trying to get him to declare for Northern Ireland.

The player's failure to answer three call-ups for the Republic was widely taken to indicate similar levels of disinterest, but yesterday at Malahide, where he trained for the first time in his new national colours, the 25-year-old quietly insisted genuine injuries had forced him into repeated withdrawals under the last regime.

A year and a half on, Folan is a little bemused to hear the gist of Staunton's description. "Well," he says with a broadening grin, "I think that's probably a side of my game all right. I think as a striker you have a bit of a responsibility to lead the line and put yourself about a bit, so he was probably right in that sense. But it's probably only a small part of my game.

"As a player," he adds, when asked what he sees as his strengths, "I'm quite athletic and quick. I like to run in behind, to run with the ball. You know, hold up the ball, link up with players around me, try to score goals. I'm trying to get all those elements into my game, but obviously I'm young and still learning."

When he was younger still, he acknowledges, his ambition was to play for England and he even had a few trials with the schoolboy team. Grandparents on his father's side from the Aran Islands and Galway city provided him with international options, though, and he observes, "you take your chances as they come around".

The aim now is to build on yesterday's strong showing in training and impress Trapattoni sufficiently against Forest at Dalymount Park tomorrow night to earn a call-up to the Ireland squad proper.

"Yeah, that's the idea. It's the only reason I'm here. I want to show him that I do want to be a part of the squad, that I do want to play.

"Obviously, there's a new manager in and he's got the players playing in their strongest positions, but I want to show him what I can do, and, if he likes it, then great. To be fair, the lads who are there already have been doing okay so far, but for myself, I want to work to become a part of the set-up."

If he pulls it off, it would be another significant step in a career that's been going in the right direction since the end of a 44-game goalless run he had at Chesterfield a couple of years ago. It was when, immediately after that, he helped the then League One side to go on an impressive cup run with a string of goals in big games that he caught Staunton's eye. But there were other admirers too, with his form earning him moves first to Wigan Athletic and then to his current club, Hull City.

Heading to Wigan, he says, felt like a dream, but having failed to make an impact, Steve Bruce's departure left him feeling more than a little unwanted.

"I still had three years left (on his contract)," he says, "and I could have stayed there. But I wanted to feel part of a team again and didn't want to be there for the sake of being there. The opportunity came up at with Hull and I got promoted with them first time, so things have worked out quite well."

He got nine goals in that promotion-winning campaign and, though he has generally started games this season on the bench, the winner for the club against Fulham on their first outing in the top flight was enough for Trapattoni to issue another invitation.

By the looks of things, he has been quick to seize the chance, because by the end of the afternoon's training session the Italian coach was talking about keeping Folan on for next Wednesday's full international against Cyprus.

"He has a good quality," beamed the coach after a 20-minute training game. "He's young but in the future he could grow to be important."