Gibraltar v Ireland. Saturday 23 March.
Callum O’Dowda will be in the squad and, at this rate, Mick McCarthy will be thinking he could go on to be one his most important players over the next nine months.
The Bristol City attacker, who has played all over the front six this season but mostly on the left wing, has played 10 games since the turn of the year and, in those six weeks, he’s scored four goals and set up one.
At 23 years of age, O’Dowda’s progression is still following an exciting trajectory and he was the subject of what would’ve been a massive transfer for him in January.
The move never materialised but, regardless, the Ireland international is still impressing for Bristol City who are in the playoff positions in sixth place. On Saturday, they lost out away to top-of-the-table Norwich City but they were dreaming for a while after Callum O’Dowda lit the place up and fired them ahead in the first half.
The skilful wide man came bursting through the centre in the 37th minute and made mince meat out of Kenny McLean and Ben Godfrey. Two soft tackles and two exquisite touches were enough for O’Dowda to jink around the pair, take another touch and place perfectly into the bottom corner, much to the anger of the home support.
As it was, Norwich found the resolve to come back from behind in the second period and win the game 3-2 but Bristol hang on to their playoff spot and O’Dowda’s stock continues to rise.
Elsewhere, Sean Maguire scored his second goal in three games as Preston won 3-1 away to Milwall. The former Cork City giant played the full 90 minutes and his hamstring problems of this season look further and further behind at just the right time for the run-in to the start of the Euro 2020 qualifiers.
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