Evan Ferguson

Richard Dunne was back at Abbotstown yesterday wearing a FAI tracksuit top which just about fitted the broadshouldered defender famously christened 'The.

He didn't want any of the build-up.' It was at 6am which was a bit of a nightmare! It's been a huge boost for the league as well, and Damien will get more opportunities in his career. The goal is to qualify, that's the be-all and end-all of it, but there has to be a bit of realism about who we're playing. A while back Evan was on the bench for the first team in one of the Cup games. 'It was the first final I've been to. Then I slipped on the halfway line and (Michael) Owen went through and scored. I think he'll play a big part of it (the Euros).' Dunne reckons Ireland are finally on the upgrade on Kenny's watch. 'Then he went out and scored two goals for the U23s the next night. You're playing against one of the best teams in the world. He didn't get on and he was a bit disappointed.

RICHARD DUNNE believes Evan Ferguson has got everything a striker needs — but is not convinced the teenager should start against France next month.F.

“What he’s done in the last couple of months is brilliant. . . It was the first time I’d seen him play. “But, in the games he started, he’s not looked out of place in the Premier League. Sometimes you see centre-forwards and you think, ‘He’s missing this, this and that’. “Even then you were looking at him going, ‘Jaysus’.

Former Ireland international Dunne, 43, was recently linked with the previously vacant Bohemians job before being pipped to the post by Declan Devine.

He got called up for one of the games and it was the first time I saw him. “I did one session for Evan when I was with the Ireland Under-16s. “You might get an opportunity at a League Two team but why not share that knowledge back here? It is a career choice.” “I am open-minded to it,” he said. “Everything is just getting better.