Gavin Cooney reports from FAI HQ, Abbotstown

IRISH DEFENDER DARA O’Shea has had to endure the cold shoulder from manager Vincent Kompany en route to becoming a fixture in the Burnley defence. 

O’Shea has played all but 45 minutes of Burnley’s last five Premier League fixtures, but was absent from the matchday squad entirely from three of the previous four games. The Irish defender admits it was a tough situation to deal with. 

“It was tough mentally”, said O’Shea at a press conference today. “There wasn’t much words said to me, to be honest. I don’t know why that was, I think that’s just the way he handles things. I had to get my head around that and work hard, put myself back in the frame, which I have done, playing consistently for the last few games and I am really enjoying it.

“But it was a tough period, It’s not easy, when you are injured you can kind of accept it as you can’t possibly play. But when you are fit and ready and trying to do everything on the training pitch and you don’t get selected it’s a tough one to take, seeing the boys go out there and you’ve worked hard all week to try and get into that position, it’s hard. But it pushes you on, there will always be that opportunity again, you have to be there to take it.”

Burnley have endured a brutally difficult start to the Premier League season, and are bottom with just four points from 12 games. O’Shea was absent from Burnley’s sole league win so far, a 2-1 victory away to Luton Town. 

“It’s been tough club-wise, we haven’t got as many points on the board as we’d have liked to have had”, said O’Shea. “I found it a bit tough at the start, finding my feet in a new system under a new manager who demands a lot from you, but for me personally I am learning a lot, it’s been great for me to open up to a new club, obviously I’d been at West Brom for eight years previously, so it’s my first time at a new club, learning new things, meeting new people. I am trying to take as many positives from it as possible, it’s a results-based game, we want points, we want to stay up and I think they will come soon.”

O’Shea’s immediate emphasis, however, is on international duty, as Ireland’s doomed Euro 2024 qualification campaign ends on Saturday away to the Netherlands. 

“We know that we cannot qualify, but it is an international game a competitive game against a great side away and we know we want to do something special as a group”, he said. “If that’s all we can do right now, that’s what we want to do, to beat the Netherlands away, we know how much it would mean for the nation and for ourselves and the manager too.”

Ireland were beaten 2-1 by the Dutch in September, a game in which Ireland started furiously, pressing high and forcing an early lead which they could not hold. O’Shea says there is no reason Ireland cannot be just as aggressive from the off, even if they are away from home this time around. 

“I think we can, there’s no reason why we can’t”, said O’Shea. “That’s was our identity and it has been throughout this campaign, it doesn’t matter if you are home or away, you have to try and make an impact, silence the crowd and that’s a great way to do it.”