ROBINS ACE O’DOWDA TO MODEL GAME ON MCCLEAN

CALLUM O’DOWDA watched Ireland’s Euro 2016 adventure from a fanzone in Paris having narrowly missed out on Martin O’neill’s 23-man squad.

Now he wants to play his way into the manager’s World Cup plans as the Boys in Green look to take a giant step towards Russia. When O’neill revealed his final squad for France, he invited O’dowda to stick around and train at the pre-tournament camp in Cork as the 24th man. It was then the gaffer claimed that the Bristol City winger can be the future of the Irish team “with a little bit of luck”. Having just broken into senior ranks for the first time, O’dowda - unlike David Forde – couldn’t have any gripes with missing out on the squad proper. But O’neill was tracking O’dowda from his under-21 days and once called Noel King asking to be put onto the youngster who was alongside him in the airport ahead of game in Slovenia. O’neill gave the 22-year-old a warts and all breakdown of his performance having watched him against Italy a few days before. But while he enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the Green Army in France last summer, O’dowda craves big tournament memories from a player perspective. “I’m always thinking about the World Cup, if I’m honest. I went to Paris and watched the Euros in the fanzone. “Watching it, you want to be a part of it. I was close (to the squad) and I was doing the training, but I was envying everyone out there.” O’dowda has five caps. He made his competitive bow off the bench in the qualifying win away to Moldova last October. And his appearance in the 3-1 defeat to Mexico in New Jersey was his first senior start. The English-born wideman knows he still has to put in the hard yards to crack O’neill’s first-team. And he revealed he’s using James Mcclean (right) as inspiration, declaring: “I’m always thinking of James – he’s the player I want to be. He’s powerful. We were chatting on the bench against Uruguay about who’s quicker. He thinks he is. I think I am. Who wins? I don’t know. Everyone thinks he is, but you never know. He’s got a few years on me. “But he’s the type of player I want to be. It’s the key moments and how he just pops up. When James gets on the ball, it gives everyone a lift. “That’s what I want to happen. When I get on the ball, I want people to say “OK, let’s see what Callum can do. “If I can have a couple of more seasons in the Championship and maybe push on, we’ll see what happens. “But it has to start somewhere for me and that’s where I think it’s going to happen with me coming off the bench and making a positive impact – score a goal, win a game.”