Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
EGAN IS HOPING IT’S SET IN STONE FOR HIM
BY MARK MCCADDEN
IN an exciting new era of Kennyball, one great Irish tradition remains.
There can be no arguing that Ireland’s possession play has improved under Stephen Kenny, who came into the job promising an evolution in style.
And has there ever been an Irish attack so blessed with pace?
Compared to the latter stages of the Martin O’neill era and the brief second coming of Mick Mccarthy, fans have been treated to goals galore – and some spectacular ones.
Just this year they’ve seen
Chiedozie Ogbene score with a bicycle kick against Belgium and
Michael Obafemi stick away a couple of long-rangers against
Scotland and Armenia.
But the staple of a solid Irish display hasn’t been lost in the transformation – the good old centrehalf banging one home from a set-piece.
There is no Shane Duffy (inset) tonight against Norway. He has been left out of the squad for personal reasons.
Fret not, though, as John Egan has stepped into the on-loan Fulham defender’s boots.
Egan has been prolific in recent times for his country, scoring in his last two appearances, against Scotland away (below) and at home to Armenia.
He has three goals in total, including his header in Portugal last year which was minutes away from being a famous match-winner.
That’s three goals more than his tally for
Sheffield United so far this season.
In fact, his two goals in his last two games for Ireland equal his club tally across the past two and a half-seasons – or 105 games in all competitions.
Ireland have scored 32 goals under Kenny and eight of those – a quarter – have come from a centreback.
As Egan points out, there is still plenty of time devoted to that grand Irish tradition on the training ground.
“We work a lot on set-pieces and obviously as a centre-back your best chance of scoring is when you go up for a corner,” said the 30-year-old.
“You can’t take it lightly, you have to go up there believing you can score.
“The delivery has to be good as well and our movement has to be good in the box.
“We want to be a threat from set-pieces and we work on that in the training ground.”
Kenny’s men were landed with one of the toughest possible challenges at last month’s Euro 2024 draw but one by one the players have batted away talk of qualifying being mission impossible.
“We know the group is tough but they are going to be big games playing against big nations and we relish playing anyone,” said Egan.
“First and foremost we are looking forward to tonight.”