IT’S ONLY NOW I TRULY FEEL LIKE I BELONG TO THIS TEAM

Arter thrilled to be playing key role

WITH a former international midfielder as his Irish manager and another as assistant, Harry Arter knows he can’t go missing when the muck and bullets are flying in the trenches.

For Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane are graduates of football’s engine room and when Arter isn’t ‘on’ his game, they cop on before anyone else.

It happened in Georgia where Arter was hooked after an hour by O’Neill as Ireland fell away after taking the lead.

Dropped for the Serbia game a couple of days later, Arter’s prospects of involvement in the World Cup end game appeared slim.

Sure enough, he was left out against Moldova last month only to spring from the shadows against Wales in Cardiff where he ran his legs to stumps in a famous victory and was centrally involved in James McClean’s winning goal.

Suddenly, Arter was back in favour. He still is and will man the pumps against Denmark in Copenhagen tomorrow night.

So where did it all go right for the busy Bournemouth midfielder?

For an explanation, Arter points to a ‘productive chat’ with O’Neill before the October double-header.

‘One thing I always feel you have to be as a player is honest with a manager. There’s no point telling him things that he just wants to hear so I was honest with him about how I performed [against Georgia] and why I performed that way,’ said Arter.

They two men reflected on the Georgia game and how Arter’s star waned after a bright start.

‘Sometimes it’s the games where you don’t play well, that you learn the most about yourself that. They are the games you look at to really evolve and to improve,’ he explained.

‘It was a very productive chat with the manager and one that worked out for the best based on the Wales game.’

Set to win his 10th cap, Arter has begun to make his presence felt, on the training ground and in the competitive arena. He has moved on from the ‘quiet’ figure of his early days with Ireland.

With James McCarthy a recurring absentee in the qualifiers, Arter has nudged up the pecking order and believes himself and Glenn Whelan, who was also withdrawn in Tbilisi, can stand firm in the line of Danish fire tomorrow.

‘I don’t feel you could pinpoint me and Glenn as the reason why the Georgia game didn’t go as well as we would have hoped.

‘Individually, we take responsibility for not playing well but as a partnership, I would hope we are more than capable of playing with each other. We’re different sorts of players and if we were both to play in Denmark there would be no problem.’

Arter is used to playing behind the ball in Bournemouth’s preferred 4-4-2 formation under Eddie Howe but O’Neill’s three-man midfield prong allows him license to get forward, as he did so tellingly in Cardiff.

‘When you’re playing in a three, against Wales I managed to get in the box, and be part of the goal which was good. Scoring goals is something I want to do.’

He didn’t score in Wales but his stepover teed up McClean for the winner. ‘I wanted to claim an assist but Jeff [Hendrick] insisted it was his.’

Arter was a relentless bundle of energy in Cardiff and could barely muster the energy to celebrate in front of the Irish fans afterwards.

‘I was tired. To get cramp in a game is a sign the body was doing as much as I can.

‘The goal was to come off the pitch knowing I couldn’t give any more. It was different to Georgia, where my mind was trying to play well, to try and get on the ball. When that didn’t happen, I let it affect me negatively.

‘I had no regrets against Wales. I ran myself into the ground.’

The result, and Arter’s selfless contribution on the coal-face, helped connect the Londoner with the Irish dressing room as much as the terraces.

‘I didn’t feel I had been part of anything with the lads up until that point,’ he admitted.

‘When we qualified for the Euros it was a strange sort of feeling because I was buzzing for the lads, but I felt deep down inside that I didn’t really contribute enough to be really part of it.

‘This time around, it was nice for me personally to be part of such an important game. Those things are bonding, in a way,’ he said.

As a third-season Premier League player, Arter has come up against Christian Eriksen, and he holds the Danish midfield prince in high regard.

‘He has immense awareness, a great football brain, and is one of those players that will always find space somehow.

‘We’re going to have to try and get tight as possible too as he’s the sort of player you can’t give time on the ball to. These world class players always find space, and pockets that you wonder how they get into it.

‘It’s good going into a game knowing his strengths, and it’s something we’ve got to do and try and close him down as possible, don’t sit off him.

‘If I was to play, I’d try and not let him have space.’

After Vienna, Tbilisi, and Cardiff, the next challenge is Copenhagen tomorrow. It matters for Ireland that Harry’s on his game.

‘I’m honest, I’m not telling Martin things that he just wants to hear’