Paul Fennessy

IT’S BEEN a memorable few weeks for Evan Ferguson.

The 16-year-old Dubliner made his senior debut for Brighton on 24 August, coming off the bench in the 81st minute of their 2-0 EFL Cup win over Cardiff.

Then, on Friday, he made his Ireland U21 debut, also off the bench, against Bosnia, as Jim Crawford’s began their qualifying campaign with an impressive 2-0 away win.

With Crawford reporting a clean bill of health in his squad, promising forward Ferguson could feature again as the side face Luxembourg in Dudelange on Tuesday.

“He’s come in and he hasn’t looked one bit out of place, that’s for sure,” Crawford says of the player, who joined Brighton from Bohemians at the beginning of the year. “He’s been excellent in training. There are even crossing and finishing drills that he’s been excellent with his movement. 

“Can he improve? Of course, he can. He’s a fine specimen of a boy. He’s big. He’s strong. He can hold it up. He can run in behind. It is exciting.

“Everybody knows how much potential the boy has for somebody so young. But he’s a very mature player. He understands the game — when to run in behind, when to come short and when to link it up. He’s a clever player, he really is and he’s been great to work with since the moment he stepped into the camp. 

“And probably the most important thing for me is he’s a good character. He understands he’s far from the finished product. He’s willing to learn and ask questions.

“So we’re delighted to have him here. As long as he’s with us, we’ll work hard to help him develop into the player he can become.”

Ferguson was not the only new face in the side during the Bosnia victory. Jake O’Brien, the 20-year-old centre-back who joined Crystal Palace from Cork City earlier this year and has since gone on to captain the Eagles’ U23 side, also lined out at Ireland U21 level for the first time.

“Jake was someone I called into the June camp. Unfortunately, he picked up a knock in the game for Crystal Palace. But we were well aware of him and his strengths as a centre-back. He’s been fantastic since he’s come in. I spoke to [Ireland's chief scout and ex-Palace development coach] Stephen Rice about him numerous times, we’ve got so much footage sent over of him playing with Crystal Palace.

“You have to remember he’s come from Cork City just recently. To make that transition from part-time football so to speak to a full-time environment at Crystal Palace, he’s come along and there’s so much more for him to improve on.

“But he was excellent, composed, he defended our box brilliantly. And he was a threat on set pieces. We understood the strengths of Bosnia’s striker, who looked to run in behind. He dealt with that very well.”

And after their positive start in Zenica, Crawford says he is expecting a “different type of challenge” tomorrow.

Luxembourg are bottom of Group F, having lost all three of their games, including a 3-0 defeat away to Italy on Friday.

Nevertheless, Crawford says Ireland cannot afford to be complacent against a team likely to put plenty of bodies behind the ball.

“They had better chances before Italy scored, believe it or not. And they caused Italy problems on the counter-attack, so it’s something we’re aware of. They’re going to make it difficult for us and we’ve got to understand that.

“Against teams like this, who play this type of way, it could be the case that you have large periods in possession of the ball and that can become a real danger for your team if you switch off. They catch you on the counter-attack, so we’re very aware of that.

“At the same time, we’ve got to try to break them down, whether you go around them or have you got the personnel to play through them at certain times. Set pieces could be key, so we understand all the ways that we can create goalscoring opportunities against teams like this. The players are certainly focused and we’ve another training session today to go over a couple of things, so hopefully, they can implement what we’ve been talking about, the way they did against Bosnia.”