Young players add to international experience

There were sharply contrasting fortunes this week for young soccer internationals with connections to Meath.

Highly-rated goalkeeper Amanda McQuillan from Johnstown had a success to savour as she was part of the Republic of Ireland u-17 team that qualified for the UEFA European Championship finals in Iceland in June.

Her team went through a group that contained England, Netherlands and Hungary unbeaten.

One of the undoubted highlights of the campaign for McQuillan and her colleagues was a 2-0 win over England at Turner’s Cross.

The Irish team had to wait for results in other games before it was confirmed that they had qualified for the finals.

“It’s been a hard wait but probably as far back as Tuesday evening we were pretty confident that things would go our way,” said delighted Republic of Ireland manager Dave Connell.

“You always have to wait for UEFA confirmation with these situations and the girls had been on to me morning noon and night so it is great for them that it’s now confirmed. I am delighted for them. They worked really hard to get the results against England, the Netherlands and Hungary.”

Also during the past week Trim players Dominic Peppard and Cian Lee added to their international experience when they played for the Republic of Ireland u-15 team in a 1-0 win over the Netherlands at Janesboro FC’s ground in Limerick on Tuesday.

However on Thursday the Irish side lost 1-3 to the Dutch at the home of Pike Rovers also in Limerick with Peppard playing in that game and further increasing his collection of caps.