Stephen Kelly

Spurs ace handed Irish debut


May 23, 2006

Tottenham defender Stephen Kelly will win his first senior cap in Wednesday’s international friendly against Chile, having been named in Steve Staunton’s starting XI for the Lansdowne Road clash.

Kelly, the former Irish under-21 captain, replaces fellow youngster, Bolton Wanderers’ Joey O’Brien, who sits out this game through injury.

Veteran defender Gary Breen, without a club after his departure from Sunderland, returns to the side to win his first cap in almost two years to partner Richard Dunne, first-choice Andy O’Brien having been ruled out by a back injury.

Completing the back four is Kevin Kilbane, who wins his 70th senior cap, while Steve Finnan is named on the right side of midfield after recovering from groin trouble.

John O’Shea and Steven Reid continue as the new-look first-choice midfield pairing, with Damien Duff on the left side of midfield and Kevin Doyle continuing alongside Robbie Keane in attack.

The substitutes will include 16-year-old Tottenham striker Terry Dixon, who would become the youngest ever senior international should he come off the bench, Shelbourne striker Jason Byrne and the uncapped pair, Jay Tabb of Brentford and Cork City midfielder Joe Gamble.
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Does anyone else think hes a poor player? I've seen him play a good few times and he has never impressed me, he is half decent going forward but is a poor defender and a shocking passer of the ball IMO. I dont understand why he is so highly rated and was he has done to warrant a start tomorrow night. Hope Im wrong but I just dont think hes good enough for us

It's only a friendly, it's worth trying him out.

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Originally Posted by dmandmythdledge

It's only a friendly, it's worth trying him out.

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I'd normally agree with you. And I definitly thought that Kerr was too conservative in friendlies and welcom Stans more adventurous approach but we only have two friendlies before the competitive games start.

I don't think having only 2 friendlies is a problem in this situation. It's not like there's a whole host of RBs to look at- everyone knows what Carr and Finnan can do and O'Brien looked good enough against Sweden I believe.

Very surprised that Dixon is on the subs bench. I guess Staunton really does want to tie him down.

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Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy

I've taken the time to go to White Hart Lane and watch Kelly. He is quick, his passing is accurate and he is not afraid to get strong tackles in. Stephen Kelly also has a wicked shot on him. He is not the finished product by any stretch of the imagination, but he has more right to be in that squad than some of the names being bandied about. He's young and has enormous potential. Give him time.
I'm delighted Staunton is actually using friendlies to try lads out and experiment.

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I've seen him play in the flesh on a number of occasions aswell!! Disagree about his passing ability - I think its sloppy - hope he proves me wrong though!

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Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy

I've taken the time to go to White Hart Lane and watch Kelly. He is quick, his passing is accurate and he is not afraid to get strong tackles in.

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watched him myself as well and his passing was far from accurate, too many chipped/floated passes to tightly marked players and a few aimless punts into channels where no-one was running also while in quality posession, but im sure he will have been made aware of this and will have focussed on it, but theres definately room for improvement;.

he looked pi$$ poor tonight. Admittedly I've not seen much of him apart from this.

Hate been proved right but he was terrible tonight IMO - having said that the more experienced players around him didnt help him too much - but still - 4/10

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Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy

Look lads, just over four years ago only die-hard Everton fans had heard of Wayne Rooney.

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Not true, Rooney had been pegged for greatness well before that. I was him in the FA Youth Cup and he nearly broke the crossbar from 30 yards at 15 years of age. This has no correlation to Terry Dixon.

Kelly was brutal. Well they can’t blame tiredness on his performance

Pre match Moran said that Kelly had a "fantastic" season with Spurs, ffs he barely played

moran is an idiot. kelly was woeful tonight. you think after a season of barely playing he'd be fit and dying to run his heart out on his debut. but no, he was crap. cant see him ever getting ahead of finnan, carr or o'brien

He can't seem to dislodge Salteri and it looks like he is moving on to another club.

Was Dixon really on the bench?

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Originally Posted by joema

Pre match Moran said that Kelly had a "fantastic" season with Spurs, ffs he barely played

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And Sky kindly showed clips of Kelly from the 2004/5 season to back up Moran's views :confused:
Kelly was very poor last night and unlike some of the others couldn't blame a long hard season for it. Don't think he's the answer at full back in the long term.

Didnt think he was as outrageously bad as is being made out by lots of people on the forum today. Certainly wasn't a great performance by him, but I wouldn't throw him on the scrapheap yet.

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Originally Posted by el punter

Didnt think he was as outrageously bad as is being made out by lots of people on the forum today. Certainly wasn't a great performance by him, but I wouldn't throw him on the scrapheap yet.

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He was just very poor, and given that he wasn't after a 50 games season, he didn't have asmuch of an excuse.

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Originally Posted by John83

He was just very poor, and given that he wasn't after a 50 games season, he didn't have asmuch of an excuse.

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It doesn't matter how many games you play imo. With the amount of training they do, 90 minutes of football is not going to make you much more tired come Sunday morning.

Very poor full debut. Certainly shows no sign of getting in ahead of Finnan, Carr or O'Brien.

To be fair to him also he was playing on the right side of a 3 mad defence in an experimental system in his first game and Stephen Reid did not perform well in front of him in my view. I thought after the first 30 mins he improved. He needs first team football and I think he is better than Staltieri but it looks like Spurs are going for Chimbonda.