Kavanagh savours career highlight

With a couple of the biggest stars missing and Mick McCarthy attempting to run the rule over some of those who don't figure so regularly in his team selections, it was just the sort of night that often produces an unlikely hero.

But Graham Kavanagh?

Even the Stoke City man seemed to be having a little difficulty coming to terms with it all.

"To be honest I couldn't believe getting called up. My mam rang on Monday to tell me and I thought she was winding me up but she said to check my answering machine and, sure enough, when I did there was a message saying to come on over to Dublin.

"Then to come on and score the goal, I just couldn't believe it.

"Before the game Mick said he was going to try to use as many players as he could but I thought if I got on it would just be for another two or three minutes, like I got when I came on in the Czech Republic.

"Then to get on and score the goal, it was the icing on the cake, the highlight of my career so far, I still don't think it's completely sunk in yet."

Midweek internationals might be little-known territory for the Dubliner but working out what to do when he's handed a shooting opportunity inside the box is second nature to Kavanagh at this stage - he has 13 goals for Stoke this year. Although he has just signed a new three-year contract with the English second division outfit, he has been hoping to catch the eye of a Premiership manager.

"I don't mean any disrespect to Stoke, but obviously I'd like to play at the highest level and if somebody is impressed by seeing that goal tonight and something happens over the summer then that would be great. I don't know that anyone will come in for me but one of the lads just said in there in the dressing-room that, you never know, that might be the night that changes the course of my career."

Like Kavanagh, Mark Kennedy's goal arrives at a time when, once again, his club career could do with something of a kick start.

The Wimbledon player, who has been mostly on the bench this season, will benefit from last night's curling 82nd-minute shot into the bottom corner. Fate has stepped in, he reckons, to afford others another opportunity to appreciate his worth.

"It's strange all right because to start with I wasn't in the squad and then I end up starting. Then at half-time I was supposed to be coming off but it turned out that Jason was struggling so I got a bit longer and fortunately when my chance came I put it away.

"The switch to the right side probably worked out well in the end, I don't mind playing over there and I thought it went fairly well but in the end. I suppose the goal is the important thing - after that I'll probably have a few more friends again."

Leaving just behind his Wimbledon team-mate was last night's man of the match, Kenny Cunningham, who was quick to play tribute to some of those who had come in and grabbed their opportunities to impress with both hands.

"People would have been saying before that that there was nothing to be gained from playing a friendly with Sweden at this stage of the season but there tonight, we've seen the emergence of Steve Carr at full back, the arrival of Graham Kavanagh as a player of international standard and we've seen Kevin Kilbane give us another dimension down the left-hand side when he came on in the second half. That'll all stand to us when we get back to playing the competitive games again."

The goals, he said, had both been outstanding and the fact that Ireland had kept a clean sheet was a considerable boost to morale within the squad but most important, felt Cunningham, was the strength of the team performance as a whole.

"That was pretty much a full-strength Swedish team. They were unbeaten in nine games before coming here and we knew they were going to be a good side. But we've done very well out there tonight. We like to think that if we get the chance we can play some decent football, and I think that we've shown that tonight.

"To go back into the European qualifiers off the back of a performance like that is a huge boost."