James Finnerty in Republic of Ireland u-18 panel

Skryne teenager james Finnerty has been included in the Republic of Ireland u-18 panel by head coach Jim Crawford for two friendly international games in Salou, Spain, next week.

Finnerty was a nominee for the Meath young sportsperson of the year award last january and is signed with English club Aston Villa.

The Irish will meet the Netherlands on Friday 11th November at 4pm Irish time and then meet Germany on Sunday 13th November at midday Irish time in the first fixtures since Crawford's appointment to the u-18 role this summer.

'It's a great opportunity for the players to show what they can do at this level,' said Crawford.

'We've seen before that Tom Mohan isn't afraid to bring up players from the younger age-group up to the u19s as we saw with their games against Austria and in the qualifiers last month.

'These games are a great barometer of where they are in their development. We're playing two class teams that reached the semi-finals of the UEFA u-!7
Championships last season. I've seen a lot of footage of the Dutch and the Germans and both these sides will test our players, which is what we want,' he added.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
James Finnerty (Aston Villa), Edward McGinty (Sligo Rovers), Aidan Keena (St Patrick’s Ath), Aaron Dobbs (Shamrock Rovers), Mark Travers (Bournemouth), Canice Carroll (Oxford Utd), Ryan Nolan (Inter Milan), Aaron O’Driscoll (Southampton), Dara O’Shea (West Brom), Rian O’Sullivan (Brighton), Thomas Byrne (Brighton), Jack Clarke (Aston Villa), Daniel McKenna (Wolves), Stephen Mallon (Sheffield Utd), Thomas O’Connor (Southampton), Kian Flanagan (Crystal Palace), Cory Ngaba (Ipswich Town), Anthony Scully (West Ham)

FIXTURES

Friday 11th November

Netherlands v Republic of Ireland.

Sunday 13th November

Germany v Republic of Ireland