Emotional James is good to go
JAMES MCCLEAN can tonight pay a fitting tribute to his pal and former teammate Ryan Mcbride - by putting Wales to the sword. That is according to Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’neill who has no qualms putting the West Brom winger into battle. Mcclean was left ‘devastated’ after the sudden death of the Derry City captain last Sunday. He was also good friends with politician Martin Mcguinness who died on Tuesday. Mcclean was excused from the Ireland camp after training on Tuesday and travelled to his hometown to pay his respects as he was unable to attend Mcbride’s funeral yesterday. Against Wales tonight, Mcclean will swap his usual No 11 jersey for the No 5 shirt that Mcbride wore with distinction for the Candystripes. And O’neill said: “James plays with emotion anyway and if anyone talks about playing with your heart on your sleeve, it’s literally him. “I don’t have any problem whatsoever. James is an emotional character and always has been. He is devastated as he knew the lad and played with him.” Mcclean has been Ireland’s talisman in this campaign with three goals in the last two games and O’neill added: “Having gone up for the wake, he’s fully focussed on the game.” On the task facing Mcclean and Co tonight, O’neill added: “We’ve 10 points on the board and we’ve played three games away from home but there’s a distance to go. “Teams are capable of taking points off each other and that has been proven. We have to prove ourselves in every game. “The results before don’t count for anything. Of course points are good but we’re on show tonight and we have to prove ourselves again.”