ROY KEANE HAS backed David Meyler and Daryl Murphy to deliver against Bosnia, if they are called upon.
“I like Meyler,” Keane said yesterday. “Obviously I signed him, one of my better signings – but that wouldn’t have been hard.
“He’s back in the frame at Hull now. I know he was obviously left out earlier.
Keane is a long-time admirer of his fellow Corkonian who he believes is a great, reliable asset for Hull manager Steve Bruce as he looks to guide the Tigers back to the Premier League.
“Every time I spoke to people, and when Meyler was at Hull, (I said) he’ll never let you down.
“He’s a good character, I’ll give him that. He’s a good player, he’ll do a good job for us, he’s a strong boy, good attitude.”
Keane sees Meyler as a strong character and believes it is no coincidence he is used to getting positive results. And he sees that trait, as well as the fact that he is playing regular football for league-leading Hull, as a major reason to use him against Bosnia.
“It’s no coincidence, and I don’t know what Brucie might think, but every time I see Hull and Hull are winning games, Meyler is playing for them.
“I know they were disappointed about relegation but on their promotion team, Meyler played a lot of games. He’s back now and they’re winning games and Meyler tends to be in the team.
“That’s a good sign. I had a player like that at Sunderland, Dean Whitehead, and people used to question him but every time he plays we get a good result.
“Meyler won’t let us down if he gets involved on Friday night, and he’ll have a good chance because he’s playing regularly.”
Keane also had positive things to say about in-form Ipswich Town striker Murphy, who bagged a hat-trick in a 5-2 win against Rotherham last weekend.
“Daryl Murphy the same. I’ll go through all the players. Murph will never let us down and you can analyse it till the cows come home. If Murph starts on Friday night he will give everything for the cause.
“We could be here all day analysing players’ abilities and strengths and weaknesses but in terms of attitude, Murph always contributes.
As well as his goalscoring abilities, Keane insists that Murphy is a team player who gets through plenty of dirty work. And he admits the Waterford man’s return to goal-scoring form bodes well for Ireland.
“It might be stuff that the untrained eye might not notice but in terms of set pieces, Murph does a job for us, stretching teams.
“I think the hat-trick from the weekend will no doubt do him the world of good but it was always going to be hard for him to live up to what he did last year, he scored so many goals.
“In his games for Ireland, yeah, it would be nice for him to put the ball in the back of the net but he’s contributing and he’s giving 100%.”
