By Kyle Gunn
Connor Ronan has described his first senior Ireland call-up as a “really proud moment”.
The 24-year-old has been a standout for St Mirren on-loan from Wolves this season, contributing eight goals in 26 appearances.
And that form has caught the eye of Ireland gaffer Stephen Kenny who has rewarded the Buddies midfielder with a place in the squad to face Belgium and Lithuania.
Ronan, speaking exclusively, told Express Sport: “It’s a really proud moment for me and my family, something I’ve been working towards since I was 17-years old, playing underage for Ireland.
“Like I say, it’s just a really proud moment. I’m just looking forward to getting over there, training with the lads and getting to know everyone.
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“Obviously, getting to be involved and play any part in the games would just be unbelievable.”
Before Ronan went off with his country, he played in Saints’ 2-1 defeat against Dundee United.
The Paisley side went ahead through a third-minute thunderbolt from Jay Henderson and had chances through Eamonn Brophy and Charles Dunne.
Instead, the game fell apart for Stephen Robinson’s men in the second half with United pulling level through Manchester United loanee Dylan Levitt, before home goalkeeper Jak Alnwick was harshly sent off by ref Nick Walsh.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Marc McNulty’s close-range header gave Tam Courts’ side all three points in the sixth minute of added on time.
Despite the setback, results elsewhere sees Saints remain one point outside the top half of the table, with games away to Motherwell and at home against Rangers still to be played before the split.
And Ronan believes that the race for that top-six place is still well and truly on.
He said: “First half we actually played quite well, went 1-0 up early on, and we had a couple of chances we should have took which is disappointing. We didn’t come out for the second half.
“They got on top of us with the long balls and we didn’t pick up the seconds. All in all they probably deserved the two goals that they got. Like I say, we just didn’t get going in the second half.
“Obviously, the lads have had a look at the results, and they do seem to have gone our way even though we have lost the game, which is a positive we can take.
“We’ll go into the next game, like we went into this and try to win. Hopefully that and something from the Rangers game will be enough to get us into the top six.”
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