Friendly
15.09.2011 at 12:00 - Ferrycarrig Park
The Republic of Ireland Under-17 team that takes to the Ferrycarrig Park pitch today will show 9 changes to the side that lost 0-2 to Serbia in Tuesdays first game between the nations.
Ireland Head Coach John Morling is preparing his charges for the first phase qualifiers of the UEFA Under-17 Championship to be played in Kazakhstan from October 18-24.
Ireland will joust with Liechtenstein, Kazakhstan and Czech Republic in the round-robin mini-group for one of two berths into next springs elite qualifying stage.
Therefore, with just a month remaining before the competitive series begins, Morling intends to use the occasion of todays final warm-up match (12 noon) to assess his options.
"We will have seen each of the 20 players on the pitch for a decent amount of time by the end of this double-header," he said.
"Any of the lads that did not start on Tuesday will be in todays line-up and, once again, they will be tested by a quality Serbia team.
"These games are fantastic preparation for the qualifiers in Kazakhstan because Serbia would be a nation we would probably not normally face until the second, elite phase.
"They caused us major problems in the first half on Tuesday but after changing some things at half-time, in terms of personnel and shape, we improved greatly and were unlucky not to score from the many chances we created.
"Even though we lost the game, there were still plenty of goalscoring opportunities created by our lads in both halves. It would have been a different game had we scored from one of those but, sooner rather than later, those openings will be converted."
Apart from Wexford native Kevin O Connor, Morling has no injury concerns to contend with when it comes to selecting his starting XI before the game.
Ireland Under-17 Squad: Eric Grimes (Leeds United), Shane Fagan (Coventry City), Sean Long (Cherry Orchard), Conor Whittle (De la Salle), Kyle McFadden (Norwich City), Evan Finnegan (Doncaster Rovers), Ryan McConnell (Glencar), Ryan O Reilly (Stoke City), Dan O Reilly (Fulham), Sean Coyne (Cherry Orchard), Tom Mulroney (Crumlin United), Gary O Neill (Wolves), Dylan Hayes (Derby County), Kevin O Connor (St. Patricks Athletic), Jonathan Leddy (Ipswich Town), Dylan McGlade (Middlesbrough), Jack Grealish (Aston Villa), Adam Wixted (Derby County), Sam Byrne (Manchester United), Conor Wilkinson (Millwall).
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