The Republic of Ireland will be without Liverpool winger Richie Partridge for tonight's UEFA Under-18 championship qualifier against Poland at Richmond Park. The 18-year-old Dubliner spent most of the day yesterday undergoing tests on a knee injury sustained in the 5-1 win over Cyprus and although the full extent of the problem remains unclear, he is expected to be laid up for the two weeks. Cartilage damage is suspected.
Ireland manager Brian Kerr has called up Kilkenny City's Michael Reddy into his panel as cover. The striker, who made a huge impact when he broke into City's first team at the end of last season, has been doing well again in the early part of this campaign. Kerr had him watched in Kilkenny's game with Home Farm/Everton over the weekend, and was delighted to be able to call him in.
The new man is unlikely to figure in the starting line-up for this evening's contest, however, with Kerr expected to stick more or less with the 11 that did so well in Monday night's opening victory. Partridge, as he was when he went off at half-time against Cyprus, will be replaced by Shelbourne winger Richie Baker, who on his international debut scored two of Ireland's five goals at Tolka Park. Kerr says he will look at his options in midfield and attack where he may make one other switch.
Kerr is hoping that the momentum built up by the defeat of Cyprus will help to carry his Irish team through to what would almost certainly be a qualification showdown with Russia on Friday evening back at Tolka.
"As long as we don't get beaten we'll be going into the Russian game with a lot to play for," he says. "And even if we did the win we have already means we would be still in with some sort of shout. But the important thing now is that there'll be a lot more confidence in the team than there was coming into this tournament in the wake of the England friendly. Spirits are very high now and there's a bit of belief around the camp again."
Cyprus deserve a good deal of the credit for what was a wonderfully entertaining opening game, but while the Poles will almost certainly provide stiffer opposition, the Irish manager believes that they too will come out and contribute to an open game.
"Obviously they'll be thinking that if they can beat us then the results could go their way on Friday night and they still could end up coming out of this group. Even without that, you don't tend to get so much of the sort of negative stuff at this level that you get in the senior game. There tends to be a feeling that the lads should go out and try to play football and that suits the way we like to play."
The Poles, who Ireland edged out at this stage of the qualifying process two years ago on the toss of a coin, impressed Kerr at Dalymount on Monday despite losing by two goals to a powerful Russian side.
"They're pretty much what you'd expect of a team from that part of the world - technically skilled, good tacklers and some big strong lads."
Daniel Grebowski, Wojciech Fabianowski and especially Robert Kolendowicz, Kerr says, are the danger men in a talented Polish attack.
