Martin O’Neill’s excuse for not calling Daryl Horgan into the Ireland squad is “lame” and “absolute rubbish”, according to Alan Cawley.
The Dundalk winger, who set up the winner in Thursday’s historic Europa League win against Maccabi Tel-Aviv, missed out on a call-up to O’Neill’s 33-man provisional squad for the double header of World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Moldova next week.
The Ireland boss, however, said that the Galway man would have been in the squad if it wasn’t for Dundalk’s busy schedule.
“[He] would have certainly made the provisional squad, without a doubt," confirmed O’Neill, who was present at Tallaght Stadium for the famous win, last week.
Speaking to RTÉ 2fm’s Game On, former Shelbourne player Cawley said: "Martin O’Neill must have had Bono’s sunglasses on him in the stand. How he can’t call up young Horgan [is unbelievable].
“I wouldn’t be one for touting League of Ireland players willy-nilly to get called into a squad as a token gesture, ‘cos that’s all it would be but this lad is doing it now on a European level.
“And it’s not just a one-off, he’s being doing it in every European game, he’s been unbelievable.
“He should be in the squad, especially at the moment, when you see some of the players they’re picking in that squad – fellows playing Championship, League One, this fellow is doing it on a European stage.
“The excuse Martin O’Neill gave was very lame, I thought.
“This is the highest accolade you can get in your career, to play for your national team, and for him to turn around and say it’s because of Dundalk’s fixture list, that he would have been in it in normal circumstances, that’s rubbish, it’s absolute rubbish.
“Gladly, he was there last night in the crowd, he would have seen what we all seen.”
No surprise as Daryl Horgan is named Man of the Match after his two assists helped Dundalk to a 3-1 win https://t.co/mz9WEAVkQM
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) September 23, 2016
