 |
|
Under 21 debut for Cameron Dummigan |
For a club who, for years, couldn't boast an under-21 international until Dimitrios Papadopoulos featured for Greece against England at Ewood Park, it is very much an international record for the club.
Northern Ireland have had a difficult campaign in the Euro under-21 qualifiers. They were drawn with the likes of Italy, Serbia and Belgium in a difficult group and and yesterday played their last game at home to group runners up Serbia.
It ended in a 4-1 defeat at Shamrock Park, home of Portadown, but provided two of our young players with caps, and for one an international debut at under-21 level.
The debutant was Dummigan who just over three weeks earlier had been named as a substitute by Sean Dyche for our Premier League opener against Chelsea.
Alongside him in the defence was Conlan who just a short time ahead of kick off was able to confirm he'd signed a new one-year deal to remain at Turf Moor for another season.
Dummigan played the full game whilst Conlan, who was replaced with nine minutes remaining, was making his fourth appearance in the qualifiers.
Meanwhile, over in Tiraspol, two became four and, but for a yellow card last week, might have been five.
Nathaniel Chalobah had to sit out England's last qualifying game against Moldova, which England won 3-0, but fellow loanee Michael Keane was in the team with Danny Ings coming on as a late substitute for Nathan Redmond to take the total to four.
Chalobah has 19 caps for England at under-21 level having made a debut in November 2012 against Northern Ireland with Keane, who debuted in March last year against Austria, making his 14th appearance last night.
Ings joined the squad much later and has now made five appearances for the under-21s, all of which have ended in victory.
Four under-21 caps in one day - our congratulations to Cameron, Luke, Danny and Michael.