Nathan Collins reckons Ireland can pull off some big results in their remaining Euro 2024 qualifiers.
And he certainly isn’t fearing the September window, when the Boys in Green face France in Paris and the Netherlands in Dublin just three days later.
He is also confident that they can claim revenge against Greece when the two sides meet again in October.
“Greece at home, we know we can beat them,” insisted Collins, who last night was named the Senior Men’s Player of the Year at the FAI Awards in the Mansion House.
“We can see that, what we did in that game, as much as we weren't at our best, we still created chances, we still played football and on the day, they took their chances better than us. That was it.
“So at home, we're confident in ourselves, we know we can play football, we know the style we can play, we know we can create chances.
“At the end of the day, it's just creating chances, so we can take confidence in that.
“Then obviously, France, Netherlands, they're one-off games. You saw what we done with France at home. We frustrated the life out of them. And again, we created chances.
“So I think everyone has belief that we can nick a result. Everyone has belief we can beat France. So we'll just have to see. We need to keep going. We need to prepare.”
He added: “Football's one of the greatest sports. Everyone knows anything can happen.
“We're Irish. Anything can happen if you're Irish. We've pulled off some great results before so who's to say we can't do it again?”
Collins was replaced at half-time by Mikey Collins against Gibraltar - a decision the Wolves man understood.
“It was just tactical. I didn’t do anything wrong, we just needed more players up top I’d imagine,” he said.
“It was the right decision because we needed to win to kickstart the competition.
“I was pushing up so much because I’d been taking up so much space. We didn’t need that many defenders, which they spotted and made the changes they had to.
“That’s football, a team game not an individual sport.”
Will Smallbone, meanwhile, was named Under-21 Player of the Year last night.
His senior breakthrough came this year against Latvia, while he made two competitive starts during this window.
“It was a good year for me last year with the Under-21s. We were disappointed with the way it ended not getting to the Euros, but personally it was a good year,” he said.
“Hopefully in the next campaign they can do it.”
Smallbone backed his former boss Jim Crawford and the Under-21 players for their decision to stop playing against Kuwait on Monday, in reaction to a racism comment aimed at an Irish player.
“It’s disgraceful, I’m very proud of the FAI for how they reacted to it and the lads for stopping the game,” he said.
“You never want to see that happen but unfortunately sometimes it does and I am very proud of the lads for how they handled themselves.”
The Southampton prospect, who spent last season on-loan at Stoke, is ready to push on at senior international level.
“I think there is more to come. I’m still finding my feet in international football,” he said,
“Obviously my debut went well with getting the man of the match and the win against Latvia and the Greece game was obviously a different type of game for myself and for everyone really.
“I think there is definitely a lot more to come for myself.”
*****
33rd FAI INTERNATIONAL AWARDS WINNERS
SENIOR MEN’S INTERNATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Nathan Collins
YOUNG MEN’S: Evan Ferguson
SENIOR WOMEN’S: Courtney Brosnan
YOUNG WOMEN’S: Heather Payne
INTERNATIONAL GOAL OF THE YEAR: Amber Barrett v Scotland
MEN’S U21: Will Smallbone
MEN’S U19: Sean Grehan
MEN’S U18: Sam Curtis
MEN’S U17: Naj Razi
MEN’S U16: Matthew Moore
MEN’S U15: Rory Finneran
U18 SCHOOLS: Peter Grogan (St. Mary’s CBS, Carlow)
WOMEN’S U19: Scarlett Herron
WOMEN’S U17: Aoife Kelly
WOMEN’S U16: Freya Healy
U15 GIRLS SCHOOLS: Abigail Bradshaw (St. Colmcille’s Community School, Knocklyon)
FOOTBALL FOR ALL: Rebekah Grant (Deaf Futsal)
SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE: Rory Gaffney (Shamrock Rovers)
AMATEUR: Stephen Chambers
SPECIAL MERIT: Niamh O'Donoghue
HALL OF FAME: Kevin Moran, Sue Hayden
