Republic of Ireland under-21 international Evan Ferguson believes that his side's European Championship play-off against Israel has fallen at just the right time with the Irish squad at full strength and bang in form.
Victory over the two legs will send Ireland to the U21 Euros finals for the first time. The tournament will be held in Romania and Georgia next summer.
Manager Jim Crawford has been able to name a strong squad for the crucial tie with the likes of Aaron Connolly and Festy Ebosele among those included in the squad.
Ferguson in particular is a player who is enjoying a purple patch as he impresses with Brighton’s Premier League 2 side as well making a scoring appearance in the Carabao Cup.
The 17-year-old comes into the Irish camp full of confidence and is seeing that reflected in his team-mates.
"I feel like everyone in a good place at the minute," he said. "I think everyone’s been playing with their clubs so everyone is sharp coming into the camp.
"We’ve a good chance of coming into the game and getting a win so we’ll do our best.
"I’ve been doing well. I went back in and I’ve been training with the first team and played some games with the U23s and played in the Carabou Cup so I’m feeling sharp and I feel good.
"We’ll see what happens during training. Obviously it’s hard competition out there, everybody’s at it every day and the other boys are good players.
"We’ll have training this week and see what happens.
"I think it would just be a proud moment for us if we do it. Obviously it’s going to be hard but we’ve given ourselves a good chance and it will be well worth it if we do."
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There has been disruption on the club front for Ferguson with manager Graham Potter moving from Brighton to take charge of Chelsea.
Brighton interim manager Andrew Crofts spoke highly of Ferguson recently saying: "He has got a lot of different strengths. For a 17-year-old, he is physically very good in terms of handling that side of the game, he is a very powerful boy.
"He has got wonderful technique in terms of finishing - he knows how to find the back of the net in lots of different ways."
Crofts has made way for new fulltime manager Roberto De Zerbi and while Ferguson will be eager to impress the new boss, he’s taking the upheaval in his stride.
"It’s not changed that much, it’s just he’s gone and the U23s manager has stepped up to the first team," he said.
"It was sort of the same stuff really and because there hasn’t been many games, there hasn’t been much change.
"We got the new manager in now so we’ll see what happens."
Follow the Republic of Ireland v Israel in their UEFA Under-21 European Championship play-off this Friday (KO 7pm) via our liveblog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app, or watch live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
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