Robbie Brady is ready to put in the hours to polish his setpiece delivery, with the Norwich man claiming they "could be the difference" for the Republic of Ireland in France this summer.
Brady's wicked left foot has been a real asset for club and country, a strength of his game underlined in Friday night's 1-0 win over Switzerland when his whipped corner found the head of Shane Duffy, who teed up Ciaran Clark for a close-range finish.
The former Hull left-back has shown he's more than capable of making an impact going forward from play - most notably with the crucial away goal in the play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina - but Brady is armed with a potent weapon in his left peg, and he's hungry to do as much damage as possible with it.
"That’s my job, to put it in that area, but all credit goes to the two lads," he said of his corner for the goal. "Big Duffy is a massive presence in there and he has been putting his head on things since I’ve known him.
"I knew if I put it in a good area he can get a touch on it and get a chance. Clarky was on the move at the same time and he did well to put it in.
"If I just put it in there and keep putting it in good areas, then we have got a great chance of scoring a goal"
"My job in the team at the minute, not my only job, is to take set-pieces when they come about, so it’s vitally important for me to be on point, especially going into such a tournament like this when that could be the difference.
"If I just put it in there and keep putting it in good areas, then we have got a great chance of scoring a goal. I’ll be practising now until the summer and hopefully I can put in a few good ones and a few to remember.
"I’ve been asked where I would prefer to play and 'where do you think you're going to play?', but I don’t care to be honest. I’ll play left back, I’ll play left mid. At the minute, I don’t really have any preference.
"I’m just happy to be playing and I’m enjoying every game I come back and play here. It’s fantastic to play in front of your home crowd like this and I’m sure it’s going to feel like a home crowd when we go over there. It’ll be a great atmosphere. I’ll play either position."
The Swiss were tidy in possession at the Aviva, stretching Ireland at times and giving the hosts a taster of the kind of clever movement and technical ability they'll encounter against Sweden, and particularly Belgium and Italy.
Friendly or not, Brady was thrilled with the clean sheet, as the Irish defensive unit looks to get into the habit of shutting out opposing attacks.
"I thought they moved the ball well and I think it would have been a different game if we didn’t get the early goal but because we were 1-0 up it sort of suited us to sit back," he said.
"I don’t think they showed too many signs of hurting us, maybe a couple of glimpses here and there, but it suited us to sit back and mop up and get the job done. It was a good 1-0 win.
"Definitely we're happy with a clean sheet. That’s the aim going out with the back four is to not concede and I thought the three lads playing alongside me were excellent.
"Anything that came into the box the lads were mopping it up. Clarky and Duffer were solid in the middle and Seamus was excellent as always at right-back."
The one major sour note on the night was Kevin Doyle's gruesome injury. The Colorado Rapids striker made his first Ireland appearance in two years, but his return lasted little over 20 minutes after he picked up a dreadful gash on his shin.
"It’s not nice to see [him going off on a stretcher]," Brady commented. "Kevin has been in here a long time and he’s a big part of the squad in the way he plays and in his personality around the place.
"When someone gets hurt like that it’s never nice, but I think it’s a deep cut, I don’t know how bad it is, I haven’t see it, but hopefully he can recover in the next few weeks and get himself back playing."
Doyle later tweeted "no serious damage, back jogging in a few weeks", while it was also confirmed that captain Robbie Keane will miss the Slovakia game with a knee injury.
