SOMETHING SEEMS TO have clicked with Callum O’Dowda this season.
At club level, the exciting winger is enjoying his best spell in the Bristol City team right now as the Robins make an unlikely challenge for promotion to the Premier League.
Having joined from Oxford United in the summer of 2016, the 22-year-old had to be patient for regular opportunities and featured off the bench more often than not in his first year in the Championship.
This term, however, 12 starts in all competitions have produced two goals and five assists — including a fine strike in last week’s 2-1 win over high-flying Cardiff City — as Lee Johnson’s men sit fourth in English football’s second tier.
“I’m really enjoying my football at the moment and since the last international break especially,” O’Dowda said in Dublin today.
“I was in the team before that but I feel I’m starting to make a name for myself in the Championship now, so I’m just hoping to continue my form into these two games.”
For Ireland, the left-sided player — a grandson of famous Louth tenor Brendan O’Dowda — already has seven senior caps to his name.
Highly-rated by Martin O’Neill, O’Dowda was handed his debut in the Euro 2016 warm-up match against Belarus at Turner’s Cross last year and although he didn’t make the plane to France, the youngster definitely left an impression on the management team.
His first taste of competitive action arrived away to Moldova early on in the latest campaign, and he caught the eye over 90 minutes during last month’s 2-0 win against the same opposition.
“Ever since I came in just before the Euros, the trust the manager has had in me has been brilliant,” O’Dowda says of O’Neill.
“For me, it is a big boost personally when you start in a World Cup qualifier and a few friendlies as well. That’s what you want.”
With the first leg of Ireland’s World Cup play-off against Denmark just three days away, O’Dowda now has his sights set on a first major tournament as well as Premier League promotion with Bristol City.
I think it’s achievable, definitely the way we started the season at club level,” he adds, before making a room full of journalists feel old by admitting that 2010 is his earliest memory of watching a World Cup.
“There’s a reason why we’re up there but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves and will keep doing what we’re doing, which is working.
“To go to the World Cup as well, that would be the icing on the cake as that’s the pinnacle really.
“When you’re growing up as a kid, they’re the kind of things you want to achieve. But we’ve got two big games coming up so we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.”
Although O’Dowda is the squad’s youngest member, he has integrated well into the group and says the plan is to become an important player for Ireland over the coming years.
“That’s what I want to do. You look at Robbie Keane when he made his debut, he did it at a young age.
“I want to make a name for myself, play as many games as I can and get to major tournaments. But the full focus is on these two big games.”
Subscribe to The42 podcasts here:
