McClean: Don’t take it too easy
JAMES McClean has warned his Republic of Ireland team- mates not to allow themselves to be written into football folklore for the wrong reasons.
The Republic resume their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign against Gibraltar on Saturday looking to pile on the misery following the newcomers’ opening day 7- 0 home defeat to Poland last month. That proved the rudest of awakenings for the Group D minnows.
However, Wigan’s ex- Sunderland winger McClean is refusing to be taken in by the Poles’ landslide victory, with Martin O’Neill’s men looking to provide a platform for what is certain to be a far more taxing trip to Germany on Tuesday.
He said: “Obviously, Gibraltar are new to world football and then there’s the Poland result in the last game.
“But for us, we have got to treat it like the Germany game. I know that’s the old cliche, but there have been a lot of upsets in football over the years and we have got to make sure we are not one come Saturday.
“If we can get an early goal, great, it takes the pressure off. But if it takes until the 80th minute... We have just got to make sure we get three points. At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing.”
McClean was sporting a beard yesterday, but insisted he was not engaged in a competition with assistant boss Roy Keane, whose facial hair has become a talking point in recent weeks.
He said: “Roy’s beard – that’s some beard. I don’t think I can grow that one, I haven’t got the thickness.”