Forrester relishing Under-21 chance

As the Republic of Ireland Under-21s prepare for Wednesday’s friendly with Holland at Tallaght Stadium, St. Patrick’s Athletic’s Chris Forrester is taking it all in his stride.

It’s his first international call-up and the midfielder has enjoyed the experience so far: “It’s going well. I really enjoyed the training session we had today (Monday). The lads are all quality.”

As the only League of Ireland player in Noel King’s squad, the 20-year-old feels that the gulf in standard between himself and the other players isn’t at all that big. “I think the league of Ireland is a decent standard.

"Maybe the other lads are of a slightly better standard, maybe some of them are a lot stronger. Training’s not too demanding. What we did today wasn’t (demanding), maybe other days it will be.”

Those who do not follow the League of Ireland may know Forrester for his outstanding goal against Shamrock Rovers last season. The skilful player picked up the PFAI Young Player of the Year award in 2012 for his efforts throughout the season.

However, Forrester has not yet received any indication that he will get playing on Wednesday: “We just trained today (Monday). It went well. If I keep training well then I might get on. I’m not too hopeful that I’ll start, but a few minutes would be good.”

His team, St. Patrick’s Athletic, have been busy signing up players through the off season. With a bigger squad comes bigger competition, but the former Bohemians man is looking forward to putting last year’s disappointment behind him: “I think we have  a much stronger team this year, a much better squad.  Hopefully we can just kick on and maybe win the cup. Last season was a bit disappointing.

"Competition this year is much stronger. There are a lot of lads fighting to get their way into the team. Personally I think it’ll be a lot harder for myself to get into the team.”