IRELAND U21 MANAGER Noel King has named 19 players in his latest squad.
After Friday’s friendly against the Qatar U23s at Bury’s Gigg Lane (6pm), Ireland head to Andorra for their Uefa U21 Championships qualifier next Tuesday (4pm). They needed a goal by Ipswich Town winger Dylan Connolly to earn a 1-0 victory in the corresponding fixture back in March and King is hoping for an improvement this time around.
“The whole thing is to go to Andorra as well-prepared as possible,” he said. “We had lots of possession against them in Waterford but struggled to turn that into enough goal-scoring opportunities but since then they’ve beaten Lithuania so we know it’s not going to be an easy game in their place.
“We’ve a few injuries from the Waterford game too but the new players coming in means the competition is stiff and we are looking forward to these game.”
Included in the squad for the first time are West Ham’s Josh Cullen and Reece Grego-Cox of Queens Park Rangers. 19-year-old midfielder Cullen made his Premier League debut for the Hammers in their 3-0 win over Liverpool last weekend, while Rs striker Grego-Cox featured in the English top flight at the latter stages of last season.
“They are quite young but already they have both played Premier League football which is a great achievement for players that age,” King said of the pair. “They’ll get every chance and every support with us and hopefully it’ll all work out well for them at this level.”
Ireland U21s squad:
Daniel Rogers (Aberdeen – on loan Falkirk)
Eric Grimes (Leeds United)
Thomas Hoban (Watford)
Glen Rea (Brighton – on-loan at Southend)
Darragh Lenihan (Blackburn Rovers)
Shane Griffin (Reading)
Alan Browne (Preston North End)
Jack Connors (Dagenham)
Dylan Connolly (Ipswich Town)
Sean Kavanagh (Fulham)
Callum O’Dowda (Oxford United)
Reece Grego-Cox (QPR)
Brian Lenihan (Hull City)
Sean Long (Reading)
Conor Wilkinson (Barnsley)
Shamir Goodwin (Crawley Town)
Sean Maguire (Dundalk)
Sam Byrne (Everton)
Josh Cullen (West Ham)
