Long never tires of international duty

ON MORE than one occasion Giovanni Trapattoni has expressed concerns over his players enjoying late nights just before or during bouts of international duty. As he sat in an airport hotel in Dublin yesterday, though, Shane Long admitted there was a slightly different reason for him feeling tired as he arrived to link up with the rest of the Republic of Ireland squad.

“After a game I’m Red Bulled up to my eyes,” he says with a grin, “so I’m just lying in bed thinking about things until about 2 o’clock. Then I was up at six this morning to get here so I’m tired alright but I’ll sleep tonight.”

For Long, who had touched down a day early so as to help promote the launch of the latest version of the popular EA Sports football game, Fifa 12, there was certainly plenty to think about into the early hours of the previous night. A third goal in seven appearances for new club West Brom has him shaping up to be one of the buys of the summer even at this early stage of the season and a strike-rate like that will be difficult to ignore when Trapattoni comes to name his side for the upcoming games against Andorra and Armenia.

And the fact that he was named ahead of old friend Kevin Doyle for the match against Slovakia last month before pulling out with a calf strain suggests that his case was already considered strong.

It seems to be coming together nicely for the 24-year-old who admits to having doubted whether he would ever get to this point a couple of years ago when Doyle left Reading and, somewhat to his surprise, he wasn’t immediately asked to fill the void up front.

“There were doubts at that stage I think,” says the Tipperary native. “I went back down to the Championship and I was a sub, still not getting the starts and I was thinking, it was my fourth year over there and things still weren’t going as I’d planned.

“Kevin had just left and while I had a few injuries, they weren’t enough for me not to be playing. It was kind of a case of now or never; I had to pull my finger out and ever since then I haven’t really looked back. I’ve changed my life off the pitch and on it and it’s all added up to a good couple of years.

“It was just little things,” he acknowledges when it is put to him that he was never exactly considered troublesome by the managers he has worked with. “My diet out, getting to training first and doing little bits extra in training and in the gym and stuff.

“It makes a big difference mentally as well just because when you come to play on the Saturday you feel like you’ve done everything in your powers to be right for that game – there’s nothing at the back of your mind that you could have been done better, that would have made a difference to me.”

The goals he has scored against Manchester United, Chelsea and now Sunderland, like the majority of his performances for Ireland since making such an impact after coming on in the home game against Russia last year, have suggested that between the more focused application and a settled family life with partner Kayleah, their 18-month-old daughter Teigan, that he’s getting something right. With West Brom continuing to find their feet after a difficult start, his most immediate focus now is helping Ireland push on from the relatively strong position they find themselves in with two group games to play.

“There’s nothing worse than depending on others to sort it out for you but this is sort of in our own hands,” he says. “Obviously we could finish top of the group if Slovakia do us a favour (against Russia) but the very worst that could happen if we do things at our end is that we’ll finish second and have a play-off to look forward to.”

Armenia, he knows, will be tough with their remarkable 4-0 win in Slovakia confirming what everyone had suspected – that they are a team improving almost beyond recognition. But Andorra is first up and Long knows all about the difficulties of playing such lowly ranked opposition in big games, having made his debut against San Marino under Steve Staunton. “They’re tough games for obvious reasons,” he says. “We’re massive favourites but in a way you can’t really win. If you do then it’s: ‘Yeah, but you should have won’ and if you don’t it’s the end of the world.

“It (San Marino) was a horrible game to play in. They made it really hard; put 10 behind the ball and it was very tough to break them down on a bobbly pitch. In the end, though, we came away with a 2-1 win and three points on the board thinking job done, and if we go to Andorra and do the same then at the end of the day we’ll be happy.”

He will, he insists, be content too even if he loses out in the team selection as long as the team wins and makes it to Poland and Ukraine. That, most likely, would involve Doyle starting which, he insists, would not dent their friendship. “I room with him and we’re good friends but if he starts I’d be right behind,” he says.

“We’re close but it’s never personal. It’s in the hands of the manager; it’s not one of us that puts the other on the bench.”