O’Brien names Ireland U17 squad for Slovenia games

05 Aug O’Brien names Ireland U17 squad for Slovenia games

REPUBLIC of Ireland U17 Head Coach Colin O’Brien has named his squad for two friendly games against Slovenia next week.

The sides will meet at the National Football Centre, Brdo, on Tuesday and Thursday next week in O’Brien’s first two internationals since being appointed as U17 national team coach.

Ireland will meet Kazakhstan, Greece and hosts Andorra in the UEFA U17 Championships Qualifying Round in October.

O’Brien is looking forward to working with the group in the coming days although he has previously worked with a number of these players through his previous role as Ireland U15 Head Coach.

“We’ve a good knowledge of the players having worked with them in the Emerging Talent Programme and with the Ireland U15s although a few new faces have popped up since they progressed to the U16s. There are three players involved that I’ll be working with for the first time,” said O’Brien.

“Many of these players have gone from schoolboy football to the SSE Airtricity U17 National League this summer so they’re adjusting to that level and the different challenges involved in that.

“We held two home-based assessment days recently and a number of the players from those games are included.

“We’re really looking forward to working with the players in Slovenia this week. One of our aims is to continue on with the style of play we introduced to them at U15 level and they worked on with the U16 management team last year and also see how the new players adapt to that.

“In the U17 level everything focuses on the qualifying campaign which begins in October over and these games are in preparation for those fixtures.

“One of our aims in the coming week will be giving players time on the pitch and it will be a good measure of what they can do. Slovenia will be a good test and we expect to be playing in warm conditions too so we will have to manage that.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND U17 SQUAD:

Brian Maher (St Patrick’s Athletic)

Tom Murphy (Everton FC)

Cian Lee (St Patrick’s Athletic)

Luke Nolan (St Patrick’s Athletic)

Lee O’Connor (Manchester United)

Dominic Peppard (Bohemians)

Kameron Ledwidge (St Kevin’s Boys)

Gavin Kilkenny (Unattached)

Aaron Bolger (Shamrock Rovers)

Conor Coventry (West Ham United)

Joe Dwyer (Athlone Town)

Sean Brennan (Belvedere)

Jordan Doherty (Sheffield Utd)

Rowan Roache (Blackpool)

Marcus Rowley (Malaga)

Aaron McColgan (Derry City)

Callum Thompson (St Joseph’s Boys)

Dillon Robinson (Kerry SL )

Adam Idah (Corinthians Boys)

Thomas Caffrey (Celtic)

FIXTURES

Tuesday, August 9

Slovenia v Republic of Ireland, National Football Centre, Brdo (4.30pm Irish)

Thursday, August 11

Slovenia v Republic of Ireland, National Football Centre, Brdo (9.30am)