Mayo native set to start in Ireland schools friendly

Castlebar's Darragh Reilly has been named in the Ireland Schools starting line-up for their match against Northern Ireland this week.

Republic of Ireland Schools head coach John McShane (International School, Dublin) has named an unchanged team to face Northern Ireland in Maginn Park, Buncrana, this Thursday, March 31 (7 p.m.).

The students won their opening Centenary Shield game at home to Scotland a fortnight ago and McShane is sticking with the same youngsters for the second fixture of four.

The Irish crew were one down against the Scots inside the first 20 minutes but goals either half courtesy of Lennon Gill and Michael Raggett saw debutant head coach McShane snatch all three points.

The scholars will face Frankie Wilson’s side, who will line out for the final time on Thursday having played their other three fixtures. The reigning 2019 champions recorded three points from a possible nine, with their only victory coming against Wales (3-0) as they suffered defeats to Scotland (3-2) on the opening day and at home to England last Friday (1-2).

Northern Ireland goalkeeper Alex Henderson and midfielder Jack Patterson are ruled out due to injury, which means potential call-ups for Jamie Ray and Oscar McKenna respectively. Also in contention may be Aaron Wightman and Patrick Kelly, who missed out on the England encounter due to their involvement with the Northern Ireland Under-19s in Spain.

Following the Northern Ireland clash, the Republic of Ireland have two away fixtures as they take on England in Eastleigh FC on April 8 while they conclude the series against Wales in Caernarfon FC on April 21.