TROY WILL TAKE IT IN HIS STRIDE
IRELAND UNDER-21S LATEST STEPHEN KENNY is backing teen sensation Troy Parrott to move on quickly from his “harsh” sending off against Italy on Thursday.
The Ireland Under-21 manager will be missing his star striker for Tuesday’s Euro qualifier in Iceland after he incurred a second booking in the stalemate with the group’s top seeds. Italy’s Moise Kean was also dismissed in the same incident.
Although the decision of German referee
Sascha Stegemann to brandish a second yellow card to Parrott at Tallaght was baffling, bookings cannot be appealed.
It was the first red card at international level for the Tottenham striker and he trudged out of the stadium with his hood up and looking dejected.
Parrott’s glum mood was a in stark contract to last month when he bagged three goals over the two wins against Armenia and Sweden.
But his manager is backing him to bounce back strongly.
“Troy is a brilliant young man who has shown character before,” said Kenny of the 17-year-old, who made his first-team debut for Spurs last month in the League Cup.
“After scoring the winner on his Under-21 debut against Armenia, I left him on the bench in the Sweden game three days later for tactical and freshness reasons.
“Troy was disappointed to be left out, but how did he respond to it? He gets two unbelievable goals when we were 1-0 behind.
“That’s how you define character.
“People speak about character, what is it? That’s the definition of it for me.
“Troy was very harshly treated by the referee against Italy.
“We moved him to the left into the position left by Aaron Connolly, a slot he doesn’t normally play, but could have scored twice. He has a great instinct for getting goalscoring chances.”
With Parrott banned and Connolly with the seniors, Kenny could have done with having Jonathan Afolabi on the flight to Reykjavik.
But his injury added to the striker shortage, forcing Kenny to draft Aaron Drinan into the panel. The Ipswich Town forward is currently on loan with Swedish second division outfit GAIS.
Ireland are top of their qualifying group with 10 points from the opening four matches.
They reach the midway point of the campaign by facing an Icelandic side who bettered the Irish victories over Luxembourg and Armenia.
Only the group victor is guaranteed a place in the 2021 finals to be hosted by Hungary and Slovenia.
The best runners-up across the nine pools joins them directly at the showpiece, with the others clashing in four play-offs to decide the final spots.
Kenny will remain with the squad up to the penultimate qualifier away to Luxembourg in March, after which he’s due to succeed Mick Mccarthy in the senior post.