WHEN JAMES MCCLEAN was sent on as a second-half substitute against Poland, he arrived as man with a point to prove.
Within six minutes, the winger had levelled Arkadiusz Milik with a crunching tackle that drew a roar from the Aviva Stadium crowd and set the tone for Ireland’s late ascendancy that led to Shane Long’s precious equaliser.
RTÉ
RTÉ
The tackle wasn’t pretty — Milik was subsequently ruled out for a few weeks — but McClean had been true to his word.
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A few days earlier he suggested to reporters that “a good crunching tackle is almost like a goal.” Trailing 1-0 with time running out, Ireland needed a spark and McClean delivered.
So, the question had to be asked: can we expect more of the same on Saturday evening against Scotland?
McClean made it clear that he wasn’t sent out under any instruction to hit early and hit often in the Poland game, but equally he made no excuses for the robust tackle that is part of his arsenal.
“I was just playing my normal game,” he said on Thursday.
I think I’ve got something like 13 bookings this season at club level so I think that speaks for itself. That’s just my normal game. I just go on and try to do my job as best as possible.
“The way the sport’s going now, if you look at someone the wrong way, you get a yellow card.
“I’ll play my normal game and if there’s a tackle to be made, then I’ll make it. If there’s a cross to be put in, then I’ll put a cross in.”
McClean played the full 90 minutes against Scotland in Glasgow but struggled to impose himself on the game.
Instead it was Wigan club-mate Shaun Maloney who stole the headlines after the hosts caught Ireland napping with a quick set-piece.
The main instruction from management this week has been a simple one, McClean said – ”Switch on and do our jobs.”
A set-piece undone us in November and we were really disappointed about that. We’ve to make sure that we don’t concede from set pieces this time around and go out and do the best we can to win the game.
He added: “It will be nice to put November’s game right. If it’s a scrappy game and it takes an o.g. in the last minute, then so be it.”
'If there's a tackle to be made, then I'll make it' - McClean seems ready to embrace the enforcer role
WHEN JAMES MCCLEAN was sent on as a second-half substitute against Poland, he arrived as man with a point to prove.
Within six minutes, the winger had levelled Arkadiusz Milik with a crunching tackle that drew a roar from the Aviva Stadium crowd and set the tone for Ireland’s late ascendancy that led to Shane Long’s precious equaliser.
The tackle wasn’t pretty — Milik was subsequently ruled out for a few weeks — but McClean had been true to his word.
A few days earlier he suggested to reporters that “a good crunching tackle is almost like a goal.” Trailing 1-0 with time running out, Ireland needed a spark and McClean delivered.
So, the question had to be asked: can we expect more of the same on Saturday evening against Scotland?
McClean made it clear that he wasn’t sent out under any instruction to hit early and hit often in the Poland game, but equally he made no excuses for the robust tackle that is part of his arsenal.
“I was just playing my normal game,” he said on Thursday.
“The way the sport’s going now, if you look at someone the wrong way, you get a yellow card.
“I’ll play my normal game and if there’s a tackle to be made, then I’ll make it. If there’s a cross to be put in, then I’ll put a cross in.”
McClean played the full 90 minutes against Scotland in Glasgow but struggled to impose himself on the game.
Instead it was Wigan club-mate Shaun Maloney who stole the headlines after the hosts caught Ireland napping with a quick set-piece.
The main instruction from management this week has been a simple one, McClean said – ”Switch on and do our jobs.”
He added: “It will be nice to put November’s game right. If it’s a scrappy game and it takes an o.g. in the last minute, then so be it.”
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Fighting Talk Iresco James McClean Ireland Republic Scotland