Newcastle’s Rory Finneran catches the eye on Ireland debut

Newcastle United teenager Rory Finneran received a surprise call-up to the Republic of Ireland senior team after a couple of players dropped out.

Finneran arrived at Newcastle as a highly-rated 16-year-old, having already broken into the Blackburn Rovers first team and while the Irish youngster is yet to feature the Magpies' first team, he has recently been spotted training with the senior side.

His promotion on the training ground coincided with a call-up to the Ireland squad for a training camp in Spain.

As the 'bigger' leagues are still playing, Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson didn't call up any players playing in the top leagues or involved in play-offs which saw him looking a bit further down the pecking order for players. When a couple of his selected players dropped out, Hallgrimsson turned to 18-year-old Rory Finneran to fill a gap.

A solid debut for Rory Finneran

Ireland battered Grenada 5-0 last night and that allowed Hallgrimsson to take a look at his youngsters, bringing on Finneran on 74 minutes.

Irish site balls.ie dished out player ratings at full-time and gave Finneran a respectable 6/10, saying that he 'looked tidy' on the ball.

"The seventh youngest player to play for Ireland at senior level, the 18-year old looked tidy on the ball during the 20 minutes or so he was on the pitch."

Finneran was asked by Off The Ball after the game what his plans are at Newcastle now after making his Ireland debut.

"Hopefully get in and around the first team, hopefully get on the bench, but obviously that up to me to keep doing well and pushing for that."

Next up for Finneran is first-team football at Newcastle

It sounded like a pretty solid debut for the youngster in a game that was already at 3-0 when he entered the frame. It will certainly be a nice confidence builder.

We weren't expecting Finneran to actually play in either of the friendlies if we're being honest. It felt like he was being brought in to make up the numbers, a bit like when Eddie Howe calls him up to train with the first team.

Now officially a senior international, the next step for Finneran is to show Howe what he can do over the summer and get himself a place in the senior squad next season.