IT WOULD BE no exaggeration to say that Connor Ronan changed the game when he was brought on at half-time of the Irish U21 side’s match with Sweden at Tallaght on Tuesday night.

Trailing 1-0, Stephen Kenny’s team had produced an uncharacteristically error-ridden and sluggish opening 45 minutes.

Jayson Molumby was struggling for fitness and was replaced by the Wolves youngster, who is currently on loan at Slovakian outfit Dunajská Streda.

Ronan’s introduction coincided with Ireland’s rejuvenation. Suddenly, Ireland began to dominate in midfield. Troy Parrott moved to the left, with the substitute operating as a number 10 — a switch from what was effectively a 4-4-2 formation, which left the hosts with more bodies in midfield and greater control of the play.

The Rochdale-born player’s energy and intelligence on the ball made a difference, while he was pivotal to the 4-1 turnaround, contributing two assists on the night.

“We picked it up in the second half definitely and once we got that first goal, we got that belief in the team and confidence and knew we were going to win the game really,” he said afterwards.

And having been left out of the starting XI, did the 21-year-old feel he had a point to prove?

“Erm, yeah, any player that goes from starting to being on the bench is going to have a point to prove if you come on or don’t. That was in the back of my mind, and the main thing was obviously that at the time we were losing and [it was about] doing as much as I could to try to effect the game and helping the lads win.”

His introduction meant Troy Parrott had to move to the left-hand side, a positional switch Kenny admitted afterwards the Tottenham youngster wasn’t “ecstatic” about. Ronan, though, felt himself and the Spurs striker complemented one another.

“Yeah, definitely, with me coming on he obviously went out to the left but he wasn’t really playing as an out-and-out winger, which he obviously doesn’t play, he had to play more central and that worked well with me. I do like playing in the 10 and drifting out to the left a little bit and he likes to come inside, I think that worked well between us.”

And what was said at half-time to inspire the turnaround?

“Just tactical messages, and get onto them a little bit more and inject that little bit more energy into pressing them. We were pressing them at times, but maybe not all going together or sitting off them at the right times. In the second half, it started off maybe a little bit similar but once we got that first goal and pinned them in, we felt within the team, we were going to go on to win the game.

[Kenny told me] just to inject that energy really, I think that’s what I tried to do, whether I was told that or not. The way Stephen likes to play is to press from the front and I think Adam [Idah] does that really well and I like playing with Adam. With the pressing side of things, he works hard for the team. Once we got that going and started to get a bit of success off it, the full team pushed up behind us and I think a lot of the chances came from our high pressure and pinning them back in.”

Meanwhile, as the only Irish-based footballer playing in Slovakia, Ronan is in a unique position to assess the team Ireland will meet in the Euro 2020 play-offs in March.

Ronan’s side are currently second in the Slovak Super Liga, six points behind leaders Slovan Bratislava. Yet defender Dominik Kružliak is the only one of his team-mates who has been capped at senior level for Slovakia, making his only appearance in January 2017. Another player, Kristián Koštrna, was recently called up to the squad but didn’t play.

And Ronan feels Ireland have what it takes to come through the tricky away test against the Slovaks.

“The same as any European game, the atmosphere will be important. With it being one-off, I’m sure the Irish fans will travel over behind the team. They’ve done it before like in Wales a few years ago. I’m sure they can do it again.”

The youngster admits though that he is not overly familiar with the Slovakia team.

“I know they were in a group with Hungary and there’s a rivalry there, with them being next to each other, that’s all I’ve really heard about that, that they don’t like each other. But apart from that, I’ve not really heard much from the football side of it.

“I think there’s a few [home-based players] that get into the squad, but maybe only one or two that start in the team. A lot of them play all around Europe.”

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