Curtis rewarded for goal glut with call to senior Irish squad
THE steady rise of Ronan Curtis was rewarded with a giant leap yesterday after Martin O’Neill called the Portsmouth striker into the senior squad ahead of the flight to Poland for tomorrow evening’s friendly.
Noel King’s difficulties ended up providing the opportunity for Curtis. The 22-year-old picked up a booking in Friday’s U-21 qualifier in Kosovo which ruled him out of their huge game with Germany in Tallaght – a match that also takes place tomorrow evening.
However, that has freed up Curtis to travel with the senior squad to Wroclaw and O’Neill has taken the opportunity to have a look at the in-form player, with the loss of Jon Walters further weakening his striking options.
The ex-Derry City attacker has scored five goals in seven outings for Portsmouth since leaving the League of Ireland in June.
Confidence
He was a regular with King’s U-21 squad before departing and has often featured on the left of a front three, but he shone through the centre in Kosovo and bagged Ireland’s late equaliser with a fine individual effort that highlighted his current confidence levels.
O’Neill’s striking options for Poland all lack experience on the international stage. Callum Robinson made his debut in Thursday’s drubbing in Wales, while Graham Burke was capped twice in the summer before his switch from Shamrock Rovers to Preston. Millwall’s Aiden O’Brien is still waiting to win his first cap.
The quartet are all versatile, yet it’s possible that Curtis will come into contention to play as he does have the physical attributes that are more in keeping with what O’Neill demands from a central striker.
Curtis was born in London but moved to Donegal in his youth and came through the ranks at Derry City, where he broke into the first team in 2015.
He began to command interest from abroad last year and travelled to Sweden to agree a transfer to Ostersunds, but that collapsed after a failure to agree personal terms.
Portsmouth made a decisive move to tie down the player earlier this season, paying an undisclosed six-figure sum to Derry City and handing the newcomer a threeyear contract.
Curtis had scored five goals in 22 appearances for Derry this season before leaving – often deployed in a wide role – and has already matched that tally with Pompey after slotting comfortably into his new environment.
Nine members of the Poland squad have come through the League of Ireland route and defender Enda Stevens is in line for a first Ireland start, as first-choice left-back Stephen Ward is out through to injury.
The Sheffield United player believes this Ireland group – who have stayed together training in Wales since their thrashing in Cardiff – have much more quality than they showed in that fixture.
“This is the third squad I’ve been in,” said the former Shamrock Rovers player. “I’ve trained with them and watched them play and we’ve got a very good team and squad and I’m confident we can put things right.
“It’s up to us to stand up. You’ve got to dig it out and show what we can do and hopefully show what we’re made of.
“You want to be on the pitch with the best from your country and against the best from other countries. I feel like I’m ready, but it’s about earning your chance. In previous seasons I don’t feel like I earned my chance.”
Winger Daryl Horgan said there was a determined mood in training from Friday morning onwards.
“Everyone is hell-bent on turning it around,” he said. “We were missing quite a few and that doesn’t help. There’s talk about the future being bleak. I don’t think so. Look at how the U-17 team did in the summer.
“We’ve a lot of good young players in the U-21 side and Ronan Curtis is banging in the goals. It was a bad result, but we shouldn’t say there’s no quality coming through because there is.”