Swansea star Roberts relishing repaying Giggs’ faith with Wales

CONNOR ROBERTS has gone from loan outcast to a key part of Ryan Giggs’ Wales revolution in a whirlwind 12 months.

And after duelling with Spain, the midfielder, 23, is now ready to stop an Ireland revenge mission in Dublin tomorrow night.

This time last year Roberts could not get a game at Championship side Middlesbrough, but his return to Swansea has catapulted him into the international reckoning.

He has been a regular in Giggs’ squads since the Manchester United legend (with Roberts, right) succeeded Chris Coleman and will be a key man for Wales against Ireland.

“International football is very different to playing in the Championship,” admitted Roberts. “The quality is much better and the style is different, too.

“It’s all a learning curve for me right now, but every opponent is different and hopefully I can perform better and better. The aim for me is to keep improving. I’m loving being a part of this Welsh set-up and we’ve got good young players. It’s a dream for me to be playing at this level.

“The young players like David Brooks, Ethan Ampadu and myself are only going to learn from playing against teams who have world-class players like Spain. It bodes well for the future and the more we can gel as a team, the better.”

Born in Neath, Roberts is a product of the Swansea academy. He had a successful loan spell at Yeovil, but flopped at Bristol Rovers and Boro, before returning to the Liberty Stadium in January.

He could not help the Swans stay in the Premier League last term, but his committed displays, quality on the ball and relentless running have endeared him to the club’s supporters.

Now he can not wait to take on Ireland in the Nations League – the team he scored his first international goal against when Wales hammered Martin O’Neill’s men 4-1 last month (left). “Ireland have a couple of players who are coming back from injury. They will want to perform better than they did in Cardiff and will be out for revenge,” added Roberts.

“We have to be twice as good as we were a month ago. We were off the pace against Spain, we didn’t put our foot in and we didn’t make many tackles. We respected them too much.

“To lose 4-1 to Spain was a tough result. In the first half we were miles off the pace and it was a massive lesson for us. We have to move on now.

“They are a very good team, but all four goals were sloppy and could have been stopped. They didn’t really play through us, so that’s even more of a disappointment.

“We have to be at the races on Tuesday night. No disrespect to Ireland, but they won’t be as good as Spain so we need to learn our lessons.”