Bohemians manager Stephen Kenny has backed calls for an international call-up for Glen Crowe, who scored twice in today’s 3-0 win over Cork City at Turners’ Cross. Bohs outplayed a young Cork team who are normally hard to beat at home, and the visitors could have easily won by a much bigger margin.
Glen Crowe opened the scoring for Bohs in the 33rd minute. Bohs dominated the second half but had to wait until nine minutes from time before the outstanding Kevin Hunt added a second. Crowe scored his second in injury time to secure the victory and take his tally of goals this season to fourteen, amid supporters’ chants of “Glen Crowe for Ireland”.
Kenny believes that Crowe’s good form poses a dilemma for Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy. “I think Crowe is a tremendous player in terms of his eye for goal and his clinical finishing. The dilemma for Mick McCarthy is that if he calls up Glen Crowe, does that send the signal to players in the English First Division to come back to Ireland? He doesn’t want to send that signal, which is disappointing from our point of view.
“This is the national League of Ireland: not the English league – we are an Irish international team and we should be promoting players from here to get into the squad. There are a few players in Don Givens’ Under-21 squad: we want to take this to the next level. Mick McCarthy is the first international manager not to include a League of Ireland player in the international team,” said Kenny, who was delighted with his team’s performance.
Kenny’s old team Longford secured their first win in four games with a 2-1 victory against UCD at Belfield this afternoon. Stuart Holt opened the scoring for Longford with a 59th minute penalty but the Students were level within 50 seconds thanks to a Mick O’Donnell strike from close range. Seven minutes later, UCD player-manager Paul Doolin’s goalline clearance went straight to Alan Kirby, who superbly controlled the ball before striking a right-footed volley into the net to clinch victory for Longford.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
