Mick McCarthy has blasted “d******s” who questioned if his Championship players were international standard.
Seven of Ireland’s starting team in the win over Georgia ply their trade in the second tier of English football.
And while Martin O’Neill and Giovanni Trapattoni bemoaned the lack of Premier League regulars, McCarthy is not hung up on it.
“It’s a state of mind,” he said. “D*******s keep questioning them. They are good players.
“People in the pressrooms keep questioning them, journos, this question, ‘can they play?’ You saw they can play against Georgia and who knows what will happen.
“We might go to Switzerland and get smashed because they’ve got really good players, we might go to Denmark and get smashed, I’ve no idea.
“But they have stepped up and played really well and I can’t ask any more of them.”
McCarthy added: “Sorry for calling you lot d*******s, by the way. It just gets to me at times, I do apologise. Richardheads, I should have said.”
Not only is McCarthy relying on Championship players but he turned to League One and League Two for his preliminary squad.
Luton Town striker James Collins made the final cut for the opening double-header but Portsmouth’s Ronan Curtis was in line to start before his nasty finger injury.
And McCarthy insists he won’t look down his nose at any player he believes can do a job for him in a green sheet.
“I’m not bothered, not one flying flute, about what has gone on in the past or what their careers were,” he said.
“I’ve no background with them, except with ‘Didsy’ (David McGoldrick) and that’s about it, and I knew him, trust and love him to bits.
“I just took them on face value and they have all played pretty well. I can’t predict what is going to happen but I can talk about how well they have played in these two games.
“They are all triers. If they were not trying, we would have got beat by Georgia. They put a real shift in - every one of them.
“We’ve got six points and we’re top of the group and we’ve played well and they’re all buzzing.”
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