Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
UNEARTHING JEWELS FROM EMERALD ISLE..
North End ace Callum keen to link up with Ireland & team-mate Maguire tells gaffer he’s worth a look
DUBLINERS once ruled the roost in Irish squads but the powerbase has shifted around the country.
Jeff Hendrick, Alan Judge, Enda Stevens and Matt Doherty are the capital’s only representatives here in Turkey.
They have been swamped by an invasion of Corkmen in the shape of David Meyler, Conor Hourihane, Colin Doyle, Alan Browne and Kevin Long.
Derry are represented by James Mcclean, Shane Duffy and
Eunan O’kane SEAN MAGUIRE has urged Martin O’neill to take a punt on his Preston North End team-mate Callum Robinson as he wants to declare for Ireland.
A versatile forward, Robinson has scored five goals for the Championship pla-off hopefuls this season and this week issued a come-and-get-me plea to the FAI.
Northampton-born Robinson has represented England at all age levels up to under-20 but his maternal grandmother – Anne Deighan – was from Monaghan.
And Maguire, who is back among the goals for his club after a four-month layoff with a serious hamstring injury, insists that Robinson would be an asset.
With no World Cup this summer, O’neill is using tomorrow’s clash against Turkey and the May and June friendlies against France and USA to experiment.
And while Robinson is not here in Antalya, O’neill could be swayed into picking him for those summer games.
Maguire said last night: “Callum is very different to what we have here. while Tipperary, Kilkenny, Waterford, Donegal, Monaghan and Galway all have players involved.
And newcomer Darragh Lenihan (below) – who sat out training yesterday with a heel problem – will become the first Meath man to be capped if he gets a run tomorrow. “The majority of the players are from the big cities in Ireland, Dublin and Cork, so to see the spread in the group is brilliant,” said Kilkenny man Sean Maguire.
“Derrick Williams coming in from Waterford, me from Kilkenny and Darragh from Meath, it’s good. “There’s a good team Technically, he’s one of the best players I’ve played with.
“He can play anywhere across the front three and this is the first time in his career that he’s played as a number nine.
“He’s chipping in with a lot of goals and it’s great for him to come out and say that he’s able to play for Ireland.
“All he has to do is to keep his head down, keep working as hard as he’s doing and hopefully the chance arises for him.”
Of course, before any potential call-up for another attacker materialise, Maguire wants to cement his own spirit, knowing that they are players from different parts of the country.” standing in the Irish squad. Having made his debut off the bench in the October qualifier against Moldova, he shipped the hamstring injury soon after the win over Wales.
It ruled him out of the play-off with Denmark but he’s itching to get going again in Turkey where he’ll win his second cap.
Last summer, while at Cork City and overlooked for the Irish squad, Maguire predicted he would make the cut within a year.
He achieved his goal within three months, but what sparked that confidence?
“Confidence is a massive thing in football,” he said. “People deal with it better than others. I’m a confident player. It’s not being arrogant or anything like that, it’s just having self-belief.
“I owe a lot to Cork City for that because I feel I’m a totally different player to what I was even this time last year.
“It seems like I’m getting better and better.”