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Town Give Six Of Their Best To The Rest

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It is quite remarkable, given the very average nature of our Championship squad that we could have as many as six players representing their respective countries this evening but this is all a bit misleading I am afraid because only Berra, Knudsen and Maitland-Niles have actually played for our first team to date!

Oh well, for the record let me list them; beginning with Christophe Berra who may get a run out with Scotland tonight and the 31-year-old centre-half will be looking to add to his rather astonishing 31 full caps and three goals when Scotland take on the Czech Republic in a friendly in Prague tonight.

Interestingly, he is not included in the squad for Tuesday when the Scots take on Denmark at home.

Personally I find these friendly internationals a bit of a bore and a great distraction from the important business of domestic football. They can be both tiresome and disruptive and certainly not worth betting on!

Little is achieved either – except perhaps for the management team and coaching community and as a spectacle they rarely entertain with an abundance of substitutions ensuring that there is very little pattern to proceedings and lack any sort of continuity.

Town wing back Jonas Knudsen will be hoping to win his third full cap, when the Danes take on Iceland in a friendly in Herning tonight but the fact that he has already represented his country on two separate occasions is still quite remarkable!

In the England under 19 squad we have our very own Arsenal loanee Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who may have fallen down the pecking order under the watchful eye of manager Mick McCarthy but is still considered to be good enough to represent the England youngsters, who are coached these days by former Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd incidentally.

Then we have academy pair Andre Dozzell and Ben Morris with the England Under 17’s and 22 year old development keeper Jon Henly will be hoping to win his second Scotland Under 21 this evening in Angers in France in what is a Euro 2017 qualifier.

We have of course other players away from Town at the moment but none of them will be in action tonight.

Kevin Bru is on duty with Mauritius, whilst striker Daryl Murphy is away with the Irish squad, whilst Welsh pair Josh Yorwerth and keeper Michael Crowe are on their travels with the Welsh under 21 squad at the moment in time.

Now that David McGoldrick is edging towards first team action again after so long, his aim if nothing else would be to make it into the full Irish squad for the Euro Championships in France.

This is a big ask but we can only hope he does us a few favours in the meantime by getting into the goal groove for the blues.

If he doesn’t quite manage then it is highly unlikely that his dream will reach fruition.

Frank Weston – editor of Vital Ipswich


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