Midfielder Owen Garvan has been named in the Republic of Ireland side playing Germany in a friendly in Cork on Tuesday evening. Garvan will win his eighth cap at U21 level, scoring three goals.

The 21-year-old says he was delighted to be named Ireland's outstanding player at U21 level at the 2008 Eircom/FAI International Awards over the weekend: "It was really nice to be nominated for the U21 award and to win the award was great for me and great for my family.

"Now I'm just concentrating on doing well with the U21 team and hopefully getting back into the senior international squad. The manager [Giovanni Trapattoni] took me to his first training camp in Spain and it was good to be involved. They are doing really well at the moment.”

The Dubliner says Town's next two matches at Portman Road are very important as the club looks to reach the play-offs: "Ipswich have been lingering a bit in mid-table this season and it was disappointing to lose at the weekend.

"It is important that we get back to winning again to get into contention for the play-offs and we have a number of very important home games coming up over the next few weeks.”

Meanwhile, manager Jim Magilton is away covering Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifier in San Marino for the BBC and missed this evening's abandoned FA Youth Cup match.

Republic of Ireland: Shane Redmond (Nottingham Forest), Brendan Moloney (Nottingham Forest), Michael Spillane (Norwich City), Shane Lowry (Aston Villa), Michael Liddle (Sunderland/Carlisle), Stephen Gleeson (Stockport County), James McCarthy (Hamilton Academicals), Owen Garvan (Ipswich Town), Alan Judge (Blackburn Rovers), Cillian Sheridan (Celtic/Motherwell), Sean Scannell (Crystal Palace).

Photo: Action Images

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