Dunne In, Amongst Doubts

By Ade O`Connor
April 28 2003

Manchester City centre back, Richard Dunne, has been asked to join the Ireland squad to face Norway, following a number of injury doubts. The defender has recently broken back into his club side, and now Brian Kerr feels that Dunne has earned the right to compete for a place in the Ireland squad.

Earlier in the week Andy O`Brien, Gary Doherty and Gary Kelly had all been forced to withdraw from the friendly international, after acquiring injuries for their club sides.

Kenny Cunningham is now a major doubt for the fixture at Lansdowne Road, as is Manchester United’s John O`Shea and Ipswich Town’s Matt Holland. Steven Carr at Tottenham Hotspur is also touch and go over playing.

Kerr can afford to be pleasantly surprised at the low number of players forced to pull out of the friendly, as late in the season many Premiership managers can be reluctant to release stars for a ‘meaningless game’.

However, the Republic manager is keen to keep friendly internationals on the calendar, as he believes that they hold the key to testing out new young players hoping to make the breakthrough.

Many may now expect Ireland to blood a new goalkeeper, after the shock retirement from international football of Dean Kiely. Kerr has muted chances for Paddy Kenny in the future; meanwhile Nick Colgan and Joe Murphy compete to be Shay Given’s back up.

Wednesday’s match should prove to be entertaining, as the Norwegians have not held back any big games, hoping to give Ireland a stern test on their home ground.


The Republic of Ireland squad to play Norway, on Wednesday April 30th at Lansdowne Road:

Goalkeepers:

Given (Newcastle United)
Colgan (Hibernian)
Murphy (West Bromwich Albion)

Defenders:

Carr (Tottenham Hotspur)
Harte (Leeds United)
O'Shea (Manchester United)
Dunne (Manchester City)
Breen (West Ham United)
Cunningham (Birmingham City)
Finnan (Fulham)

Midfielders:

Carsley (Everton)
Healy (Celtic)
Holland (Ipswich Town)
Kinsella (Aston Villa)
Quinn (Sheffield Wednesday)
Kilbane (Sunderland)
McPhail (Leeds United)
Duff (Blackburn Rovers)

Strikers:
Crowe (Bohemians)
Connolly (Wimbledon)
Lee (Rotherham)
Keane (Tottenham Hotspur)