Graham Barrett is determined to establish himself as a Premiership andinternational striker - even though he faces the daunting task of trying to rankalongside the likes of Thierry Henry at Arsenal and Robbie Keane for the Ireland position.
Barrett - on loan until the end of the season at Brighton - equalled AlanMahon's record of 20 appearances for the Under-21s yesterday, but it was anexperience he will want to forget quickly as Ireland suffered anembarrassing 1-0 defeat by Albania.
It prompted manager Don Givens to say the time was right to startshifting some of the dead wood in the team and bring through the next batch ofyoungsters.
Barrett - who has one senior cap to his name - is unlikely to be discarded,and believes he can establish himself for club and country.
"Don will make the decisions he feels are right, but hopefully it won'taffect me and I can push on," said Barrett. "I believe I can play at the nextlevel and in the next few months I want to push on from here.
"I was with the seniors again on this trip until Robbie Keane came out and itis great to be involved with those players - I want to be involved with them allthe time.
"The only way to do that is to keep your head down and keep playing well.Everyone wants to play for their country at senior level and I am no different -hopefully I can get involved in the future.
"I have had an offer from Arsenal but I will consider that in the summer. Fornow, I want to get the rest of the season out of the way and hopefully avoidrelegation with Brighton.
"Arsenal have some great strikers but you don't get anywhere by going out andthinking you are not as good as these guys.
"Robbie and Damien Duff are an example to all of us, they have come throughand are world class now, and as a forward I look up to them and learn fromthem.
"I want to be where they are - and I won't stop until I am."Ireland has now lost three out of four qualifying matches, drawing theother, and fresh young faces are set to be brought in for the next game.
"There will be decisions made now in so much as maybe this squad will get abit younger for the next match," said Givens. "Maybe we need to start workingwith the next group a little bit earlier than I envisaged, because we have tolook forward.
"The performances by certain players tell you that they have little or nochance of moving on to Brian Kerr, and as soon as that happens they have to getoff the belt and we get the next person on there. Decisions will have to be madeon certain players."
PA