Mick McCarthy claims he would have raided Stephen Kenny’s Under-21s for tonight’s Bulgaria clash were they not playing a qualifier in Sweden on the same evening.
The Ireland boss was in Tallaght last Friday to see the 1-0 win over Armenia and said Brighton ace Aaron Connolly “had me on the edge of my seat”.
But while some of those in attendance likened him to a young Damien Duff, McCarthy said: “No. I’m not giving him that label.
“But I thought he was exceptional. There’s not many like him because they all tend to play on the opposite side, come in on the inside. The goal he set up was great.”
Troy Parrott bagged the winner but McCarthy was also taken with on-loan Millwall midfielder and skipper Jayson Molumby.
Bohemians left-back Darragh Leahy and centre-backs Dara O’Shea of West Brom and QPR’s Conor Masterson were also singled out for mention.
But while McCarthy intends shaking up his senior team against Bulgaria tonight, he insists he could not derail Kenny’s qualification bid.
“Stephen has his best 21s. He’s grooming them for future things in the first team. When he gets it (the senior job), he can put them all in and it’ll be wonderful.”
But asked if he would have picked them if they didn’t have a competitive game today, McCarthy said: “Yes. I can’t put more meat on the bones than that.
“But have they a qualifier? Then why on earth would I call them up? I think that would be wrong of me.
“They want to qualify for a competition.
“It would be an interesting concept if I did (call them up) and they didn’t qualify, there would be yells and screams and ‘why the hell did I do it’.”
But McCarthy has warned Kenny’s youngsters that they are unlikely to feature in the decisive three games of the Euro qualifying campaign.
“I’m not sure if I played them in a friendly against Bulgaria that it would tell me if they can compete in Georgia, Switzerland and then Denmark at home,” he added.
“I hope they get playing at their clubs and give me that dilemma. But I’m not sure Georgia, Switzerland and Denmark are games for debutantes.
“They have a competitive game against Sweden and I’ll learn more from that than I would in a friendly.
“It’s about tried and trusted players – experience.
“You’ve seen Denmark in Georgia, you’ve seen us against Switzerland.
“I’ve got to have our most seasoned pros playing.”
