Irish ready to put faith in Connolly

THE Republic of Ireland need to win just one of their two remaining matches and they will qualify for Euro 2020 — to that end, Mick McCarthy needs a match-winner.

Enter Aaron Connolly. The Brighton teenager showed enough in an all-too-fleeting 12-minute debut during Saturday’s goalless draw in Georgia to suggest he has something his elders do not — pace and the ability to frighten the opposition.

McCarthy knows the time has arrived to shed conservatism. He was a player in 1992 when Ireland went through qualifying without losing but failed to make that summer’s European Championship.

Another two draws in this campaign — against Switzerland in Geneva tomorrow and Denmark in Dublin next month — would almost certainly see them miss out on an automatic passage to the finals, even though it would leave them unbeaten in Group D. Connolly, 19, is the player to whom McCarthy now looks set to turn, and so he should after the new boy emerged from the bench in Tbilisi and twice came close to nicking victory. ‘Absolutely he could start,’ said McCarthy ahead of tomorrow’s game. ‘You’ve seen him come on and do what he’s done. We might have to have a bit of help with him though, he certainly won’t be a lone runner.’

McCarthy will consider pairing him in attack with a target man such as Luton’s James Collins, who battled admirably on his first start in Georgia but never looked like scoring.