Gavin Cooney reports from FAI HQ, Abbottstown

STEPHEN KENNY SAYS he doesn’t expect Nathan Collins’ confidence to be affected by his high-profile sending-off against Manchester City last weekend. 

Collins was given a straight red card for a crashing his studs into Jack Grealish’s hip, and will face a three-match ban at club level. Asked whether he thinks Collins’ confidence may be affected by such a high-profile red card, Kenny replied, “No. I don’t think it will.” 

“I haven’t discussed it with him yet. I may do, between now and Saturday. It is uncharacteristic of Nathan, he is quite disciplined. I am sure he will learn from it.” 

Collins will be available for Ireland’s Nations League games against Scotland and Armenia over the next seven days, one of a number of centre-back options along with Shane Duffy, John Egan, Seamus Coleman, Dara O’Shea, and Liam Scales. The latter has been drafted in as a replacement for Andrew Omobamidele, who has withdrawn from the squad because of injury. 

“Andrew has done terrific at the start of the season, I think he has played very well for Norwich”, said Kenny. “One of the advantages of the influx of new players over the last 18 months has been increased the level of competition in the team and there is a lot of competition. It’s an area that we are strong in.” 

Collins and Egan are nailed-on starters in the back three, with Duffy, Coleman, and O’Shea vying for the third spot. What O’Shea lacks in experience in that race he compensates for in match sharpness: he has been a regular for West Brom in the Championship this season, whereas Duffy and Coleman’s only starts have come in the League Cup. 

Kenny may not make that decision solely on match minutes, however.

“It’s not ideal that any of the players that are not playing in their teams. It is not an ideal situation, particularly over a long period of time. I don’t think I can come in with a consistent rule, a one size fits all rule: we have to judge each case on its merits, the individual strengths of the team, what we need. You wouldn’t want to go in with too many players not having played matches. We even learned a bit about that in June with players had come in and had that five-week break and maybe had not been in their team for a couple of weeks before that, starting, so these are part of the learning curve for us.” 

Ireland have no fresh injury concerns, after they were put through their bases at Abbottstown today. 

Ireland beat Scotland 3-0 in Dublin in June, but Kenny is wary of a backlash on Saturday at Hampden Park. 

“I know Ukraine won there in the World Cup playoff but their home record has generally been impressive overall. Anything we get we are going to have to earn, we have to work extremely hard for each other, show the level of confidence that we showed in the last few games, that we have showed over a period of time, apart from the Armenia game, obviously. The players are getting more confident, have a clear idea of what we want. The players are competent in all areas of the park and we want to continue that and take that into the game on Saturday.”