Republic of Ireland new-boy Alan Browne is confident that he can help solve Martin O’Neill’s midfield goal-scoring problem in the future.
Browne was voted club player of the year, players’ player of the year and won goal of the season following a break-out campaign with Preston North End.
The 23-year-old former Cork City man was a mainstay of Alex Neil’s side as they pushed to the brink of the Championship play-offs in England, missing out by just two points and once place.
He has two caps to his name and scored a first goal for Ireland last Sunday, even though it was in a friendly against Celtic, and he believes he’s ready to make the step up to international football.
"I’ve always been confident in my own ability, but particularly with the new gaffer (Neil) coming in because he’s put a lot of confidence in me," said Browne, speaking to RTÉ Sport.
"I think I’m probably playing my best football at the moment, I’m really enjoying it and if you’re playing with a smile on your face you’re playing with confidence. I’ve had a good season, but I really want to add to it and push on and improve next season.
"I was trying to find my best position under the last manager (Simon Grayson) and now that the new gaffer has come in, it’s a fresh start for me and he’s nailed down what position he wants me to play.
"I find myself further forward, he’s pushing me on all the time and encouraging me to find more goals every day. I think I’ve managed to bring my game in training into actual match-day and that’s something I have improved on and hopefully I can continue to do."
Speaking about his goal against Celtic, he knows it won’t be counted in the record books of international football, but he reckons it’s a good start.
He's likely to get another chance to impress in Monday night's friendly against France in Paris, with the final Ireland game of the season against USA at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, 2 June.
He said: "It was a great achievement for me on a personal note to get off the mark, but it’s not going in the history books so I’ll continue to try to do that in every game I play.
"I do that at club level and I’ll try to carry that on into the international set-up. In my head it’s a goal and I’m happy out. That’s what I’m going to try to bring to the team.
"I do that at club level and I’m going to try to add goals because that’s something we’re lacking to a certain degree. I’ll be trying my best in future games to try to help Ireland take the next step.
"I’ve more work to do – I got caught out for their first goal, which was disappointing and cancelled it out for me. That’s something that I’ll have to work on."
He continued: "We’ve really lacked goals from midfield to a certain degree so that’s something we’re going to have to look at.
"I see a lot of players do it at club level and then when we come away at international level it doesn’t seem to happen, so, for me, it’s about going out and playing my own game, get up and supporting the striker and set up goals as well as score them."
Watch France v Republic of Ireland this Monday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 7:30pm and follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie and the News Now App.
