YOU’LL get a good price on the Republic of Ireland getting a result against England at Wembley on Sunday evening.
There are some who’d say a flutter would be a waste of money (and maybe they’re right) but they’d probably have said the same about Ipswich Town’s chances against Spurs on Sunday. After all, Kieran McKenna’s ‘Tractor Boys’ hadn’t won a game in the Premier League but they ripped up the script with a 2-1 and Ireland’s Sammie Szmodics was the star.
With Ipswich fan and sponsor Ed Sheeran cheering in the stand, Szmodics scored the first with an athletic overhead kick and set up the second (with the aid of a deflection) for Liam Delap.
He’ll get his ninth international cap on Thursday night against Finland and is hoping to continue that good form and break his duck in the green jersey.
“I’m waiting for that Irish goal, that first one,” he said.
“Eight caps… Performances have been good and once I get the confidence in front of goal, I’ll continue to get them and hopefully cement a place in the starting XI.
“That (a goal) would be the icing on the cake. I’ve worked so hard to get to the Premier League. To make my debut for Ireland was everything for me and my family and to get that first goal would be very special.”
Szmodics has scored three times in the Premier League this season meaning he has hit the net in every division in England from League Two to the top flight. It has been a remarkable journey for the 29-year-old who began his career with his native Colchester.
“When you get to 26, 27, 28 you start thinking of the Premier League as just a dream and you’ll never get there,” he admitted.
“It comes from hard work, believing in yourself and people like coaches over the years believing in you. As soon as you get in there, people like John (O’Shea) make you feel comfortable as possible. It has been a journey and League Two seems so far away.
“The Ipswich manager Kieran says a lot about that. We’ve all come from lower leagues: League Two, League One… I’m honoured to play in every league and now I’ve scored in every league. I feel it’s somewhere I deserve to be and to get that opportunity and hopefully I can get many more goals in the Premier League.”
Szmodics’ pace and confidence up front has added a new dimension to the Republic attack and if he can start to add goals to his industry, the team’s results will improve. He believes the Boys in Green aren’t far away from embarking on a consistent run of form.
“We’re really close,” he said.
“Apart from the result against Greece (2-0 loss) there were some really good parts in the second half so we’re not far away from clicking.
“It was a good win against Finland. We’ve got the big one against England at Wembley to look forward to, but all the focus is on Thursday night.
“Finland is a team we can beat at the Aviva and we’ve got to get up for it from minute one.
“We are focusing on starting first halves like we are starting second halves. We touched on it in the meeting this morning, starting the game as well as we finish. Not going a goal down before we start doing our bits.
“If that’s a mental side of things or a togetherness side of things, we need to come up to that quickly so we can start the games as quickly as possible. Instead of going behind to start playing the way we want to play, we need to start the games on a positive foot.”
Enniskillen native McKenna has taken Ipswich from mid-table in League One to the Premier League after back-to-back promotions. Former Manchester United assistant-manager McKenna signed Szmodics from Blackburn Rovers after promotion was sealed and the Republic striker is now repaying his manager’s faith in him.
“He’s a very tactical manager, similar to Jon Dahl Tomasson who I had at Blackburn Rovers,” he said.
“They love the game. It’s very different to last season when Blackburn were going to win games whereas Ipswich is all about staying in games and getting into position to counterattack. I’m thoroughly enjoying working with him.”
