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Ireland v Austria

Coleman targets home improvement to keep Ireland's challenge on track

As he prepares to win his 11th Irish cap against Austria tomorrow, Seamus Coleman says he’s taking nothing for granted.

IRELAND’S PLAYERS KNOW they need to show some home improvement against Austria to keep pace in the battle for World Cup qualification.

Friday night’s draw in Sweden extended the squad’s impressive unbeaten record in away qualifiers since manager Giovanni Trapattoni took charge almost five years ago.

But their form in the Aviva Stadium has been disappointing by comparison and the memory of the disastrous 6-1 defeat against Germany in their last competitive home game still rankles.

“Obviously the record the manager has away from home is brilliant and it’s up to us to start taking that in to our home games,” Seamus Coleman said yesterday.

It won’t be easy on Tuesday night but we’re all aware what’s at stake in this game. There are a lot of players who have a lot of experience in the team and we’ll be very excited and confident going in to the game on Tuesday.

He added: “Home games and away games are completely different games. When we play at home, we’ve got a lot of attacking players who can come off the bench.

“It’s a completely different approach in a home game where it’s there for you, whereas when we were playing away to Sweden it was a case of not losing the game.”

Coleman won his 10th senior cap in Friday’s 0-0 draw and after years of knocking on the door and the disappointment of missing out on Euro 2012, the Everton defender now appears to have made the right-full jersey his own.

With Stephen Kelly back in Trapattoni’s plans and Paul McShane still a firm favourite of the manager’s, Coleman knows that he can’t afford to rest on his laurels.

“I’ve been in and around the squad and I haven’t got as many games as I would’ve liked so it definitely keeps me hungry.

“One of my aims is to get to a major tournament with my country after missing out on the Euros in the summer. I’m sure there are a lot of lads out there who didn’t go to the Euros who want to play in a major competition so there is good hunger in the squad.

I think you can never take anything for granted. You have a lot of players who want to come in and take your place. Stephen Kelly has been training well all week and he’s been playing well for Reading so you can’t take anything for granted.

I’m happy in the team but I need to keep working and playing well to stay in it.

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