GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI SAYS David Forde will be his first choice goalkeeper for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
The Galway native was picked ahead of Keiren Westwood on the basis that he is playing regularly in the Championship for Millwall while Westwood remains behind Simon Mignolet at Sunderland this season.
After a shaky start which saw him gifted Ludovic Obraniak a clear opportunity on goal in the 19th minutes, the 33-year-old recovered well and made a couple of fine saves to keep Poland at bay.
With a massive fixture against Sweden a little over a month away, as it stands Forde will be adding to his five senior caps in Stockholm according to the Ireland manager.
“The goalkeeper is one man alone,” Trapattoni said during his post-match press conference. “He needs games. In the past when Westwood played with his club so there was Westwood and Forde.
“Now Westwood is six months, one year without playing but Forde does. This is the reason because in this moment Forde will be the number one. He’s not number one the solution because we wait also Westwood to start again and begin to play.”
Conor Sammon made was given 90 minutes to impress on his debut and although he looked out of his depth at times against the Poles, Trapattoni maintains that he is considering starting the Derby County man ahead of the likes of Shane Long, Jon Walters, Kevin Doyle and Robbie Keane on March 22.
“I think he’s a good option for Sweden because like Poland there is technical football and also strong football. For example in the past you saw Walters (play), physicality in football is also important. So Sammon is a good option for this next game.”
One of the real positives of the night was Aston Villa’s Ciaran Clark, who produced a solid performance alongside John O’Shea at centre-half. With Richard Dunne’s long-term fitness a worry, Clark looks a genuine option.
Clark is good,” added Trapattoni. “Last year he wasn’t always playing with Aston Villa. He’s strong, plays with confidence and is fast in the pass, sometimes he scores goals also.
“I say to him, you don’t always need to take the ball. You can wait because the striker must turn, you have time. Not only Clark, I told the others to be careful.
“It’s true that he has this tendency (to dive in) but with advice I think he can improve better.”
One of three Derby County players to make their senior bows with Sammon and Richard Keogh, Jeff Hendrick played 19 minutes and came up with a brilliant piece of vision to pick out Hoolahan for the second goal.
Trapattoni says he was keen to start the 20-year-old but chose to provide James McCarthy with more experience.
“We had two difficult decisions to choose. I wanted to put him in for 90 minutes but he was new and McCarthy is young.I I wished to give McCarthy another opportunity to grow with personality.
I choose him (Hendrick) because we follow him many many times. He is physically good, I think he can do better again and be more aggressive with more confidence.”
