Town’s Owen Garvan netted an injury time goal to give his Republic of Ireland U21 side a 1-1 draw with Switzerland in a European Championships qualifier in Waterford. Garvan was skippering his team and won his 13th U21 cap.

The Dubliner hit a low shot which beat the Swiss keeper from inside the area to give his side their third successive draw, Fabian Frei having put the visitors in front on 57.

Town have four other players in international action later this week. Tamás Priskin’s Hungarians still stand a very, very slim chance of finishing second in their World Cup qualifying group but need to beat the already qualified Denmark on Wednesday, hope Portugal and Sweden both lose and that there’s a massive turnaround in goal difference.

Carlos Edwards’s Trinidad and Tobago sit bottom of the six-team North, Central America and Caribbean qualifying table and have no chance of qualification. They complete their fixtures with a game against former Town loanee Giovani Dos Santos and Mexico, who have already qualified, also on Wednesday.

The same night, Gareth McAuley and Northern Ireland play their final qualifier in the Czech Republic (BBC2 NI, 7.20pm, Sky channel 992). The Northern Irishmen must win the match they have to win to stand any chance of finishing second in their group, although realistically they are already out as they require San Marino to beat Slovenia and there to be a major turnaround in goal difference.

On Thursday, academy schoolboy striker Jack Simmons could win his first Wales U16 cap when his side take on England in their opening Victory Shield game (Sky Sports One, 7.30pm).

Photo: Action Images

Surco72 added 13:51 - Oct 14 To put the whole situation with Garvan simply ,he played in the last two games of the season which we won came on against Coventry and Palace and looked good, even setting up the goal for Bruce .He then had a poor game against West Brom as did everyone alongside Trotter who was equally as bad if not in my opinion worse in a game where we were completely overun . Since then he has not even been in the squad who have not won a game and conceded a large number of goals so his defensive qualities are no worse than those playing surely? Since he has not been playing we have started hoofing the ball from defence a lot more because no one will go and collect it deeper and then we are blaming McCauley /Bruce /Pimm for giving the ball away. I agree that in some games he may get bullied out of it but no more than Leadbitter,Trotter and Colbaek did against Newcastle ,so surely he is worth a place on the bench or in one games as a different option because however you look at it we are not winning without him either. I would like to see him sat behind Leadbitter and Norris when he is back .

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FormerlyCGS added 13:52 - Oct 14 Intelligence has nothing to do with it!
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SomershamBlue added 14:05 - Oct 14 OG is like so many players - in that he cannot seem to maintain a consistent level of performance. I had high hopes for him and have seen him play some lovely stuff - but he wants too much time on the ball and other teams know that - and he can't/won't tackle. I worry about any single player being seen as the answer to our current problems. I believe that the only answer is for RK to get the whole squad playing to their full potential. Let's hope that he can and that they put in a perfromance to raise the spirits of the fans on Saturday. Despite all of the harsh words on this site, I'm sure that's what we all want to see.

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BoxerBlue added 14:46 - Oct 14 Keano there's only one keano!!!
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byebyesheepshanks added 16:03 - Oct 14 They say bad luck comes in 3's. I've just seen Roy Keane in casualty clutching his groin. Apparantly his dog has been put down & his wife has run out of peanut butter!
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dirtydingusmagee added 17:12 - Oct 14 Hillarious.HA HA HA HA, bad luck in three's, numptie's in pairs.
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BoxerBlue added 17:25 - Oct 14 There was a helicopter on the training ground at playford road today. Marcus Evans??
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FormerlyCGS added 17:34 - Oct 14 Why dont we all take jars of peanut butter to the next game and watch Keane shy away into the dugout like at Newcastle>?
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runaround added 18:54 - Oct 14 Callumgarryskeemer - you do seem to have an unhealthy obsession regarding Keane and Peanut butter dont you?? Ignoring that, what help to the team does making Keane "shy away in the dugout"actually achieve? I'm going for the getting behind the team policy on saturday as its the players on the pitch that are the only ones who can turn it around and a supportive atmosphere may just give them a helping hand?

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byebyesheepshanks added 10:33 - Oct 15 runaround. There's a good lapdog.
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