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Kasey McAteer delight on night of firsts as Killian Phillips determined not to be 'one-cap wonder'

Updated / Friday, 6 Jun 2025 23:48
Kasey McAteer picked up the player of the match award against Senegal
Kasey McAteer picked up the player of the match award against Senegal

First start, first goal – all that was missing was the first win to go with it as Kasey McAteer picked up the player of the match award in the Republic of Ireland's promising 1-1 international friendly draw with Senegal at the Aviva Stadium.

The Leicester City player was a livewire in the first half and would have opened his Ireland account only for a simply spectacular save from Yehvann Diouf 21 minutes in. Never fear, McAteer reacted quickest to the stop, controlling the dropping ball beautifully, turning sharply and firing low to the net.

Even with Senegal grabbing a second-half leveller through substitute Ismaila Sarr, McAteer was "over the moon" with his special night.

"I think you can tell by my celebrations it was like a dream come through," he told RTÉ Sport afterwards.

"It was my first night here at the Aviva, hopefully many more to come, but I wanted to get myself on the scoresheet, pity we couldn’t hold on for the result but Senegal are a really good team and we’ll take it in our stride."

Although played out in front of a crowd of just 32,478, both teams put plenty of graft in at the Aviva with a late flashpoint involving both teams showed a desire that isn’t always present in the friendly arena.

"We went into the game saying that," McAteer said of the need to avoid that friendly lull.

For us it’s about having a good performance and getting a result.

"Out there both teams wanted to win the game because that’s in our nature and we want to win every game we play.

"It was a good game but unlucky we couldn’t hold on in the end."

Once Tuesday's friendly in Luxembourg is complete, all eyes will turn to the forthcoming World Cup qualifying campaign with Hungary visiting Dublin in early September.

McAteer feels things are definitely moving in the right direction.

"We had two good results last camp (two Nations League wins over Bulgaria), a good result today against a good team in the end, a really good team, they’re ranked high.

"We'll look at ourselves going into the next game and hopefully we’ll get the win."

"We’ve got some great players," McAteer added. "Festy (Ebosele) is really pushing and we can push each other.

"The main thing is to get this country to the World Cup and that’s our aim. Every friendly game we need to build and build and hopefully we’ll get ourselves there in the future."

It was also a memorable night for St Mirren's Killian Phillips who made his Ireland debut when he replaced Matt Doherty after 67 minutes.

The former Drogheda United man brought real energy during his cameo and he described it as "the proudest moment of my life."

"This is all I ever wanted to do, to play for my country," he told RTÉ Sport.

"Whether it was Under-21s, 15s or the schoolboys, Irish amateurs, I didn't care, I just wanted to wear the green jersey once.

"I’m a bit emotional at the minute, but I’m over the moon.

"I just want to thank every single player who has brought me through and looked after me over the years."

While a dream may have been achieved at the Aviva Stadium, Phillips was keen to stress that he wants to remain very much in Heimir Hallgrimsson’s eyeline.

"I don’t want to be just a one-cap wonder," said Phillips, who is on loan at the Scottish club from Crystal Palace.

"I want to play a lot of games, obviously we have the game on Tuesday (against Luxembourg) and then go back pre-season and work as hard as I can to try and get back in the squad for the World Cup qualifiers."

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