General
- Wednesday September 11th, 2024 @ 12:30
Busy Week For 12 International Saints
It was a busy week for St Patrick's Athletic on the international front, with nine current players and three former players representing three different countries across three age groups.
Mason Melia and Luke Kehir both scored for the Republic of Ireland U19s as their preparations for the European Championship qualifiers continued.
The young boys in green opened their Slovenia Nations Cup tournament with a 2-1 defeat to France before a 3-1 victory against Kazakhstan in which winger Kehir scored.
Mason Melia then netted a brilliant individual goal in their 1-1 draw with the hosts, with Kehir coming off the bench in that game.
Staying with the U19s, Orlandas Jakas Captained the Lithuanian U19s in both of their friendly internationals against Armenia, the games ended in a 1-1 draw and a 2-1 defeat.
While OJ's Saints U20s team-mate Ivan Graminschii played the full 90 minutes for Moldova U19s in a 2-0 win against Cyprus.
OJ, Luke and Ivan have now linked back up with our U20s ahead of Saturday's U20 FAI Cup semi-final away to Sligo Rovers at The Showgrounds.
Billy Canny, Sam Steward, Sam Rooney, Michael Noonan and Luke Chukwu were all in the Republic of Ireland U17 squad for a double header of friendlies against Denmark in Spain.
Colin O'Brien's side lost 2-0 and 2-1 with all five Saints featuring across the two matches.
While former St Patrick's Athletic players Josh Keeley (Leyton Orient on loan from Tottenham Hotspur), James Abankwah (Udinese) and Sam Curtis (Peterborough United on loan from Sheffield United) all started for the Republic of Ireland U21s in their Euro 2025 qualifiers against Turkey and Latvia.
Curtis scored the winner in the 1-0 victory in Istanbul with all three contributing to a crucial clean sheet in an excellent win, while Ireland drew 2-2 at home to Latvia on Tuesday evening in their second game of the window.
In total, that's nine current Saints and three former players who featured for three different countries across three different age-groups with St Patrick's Athletic Head of Medical Sam Rice part of the Republic of Ireland Senior Medical Team for their Nations League matches against England and Greece at Aviva Stadium.
St Patrick's Athletic Head of Academy Football Stephen Elliott has been reflecting on a great week for the boys:
"It's been an excellent week for our players on international duty and everyone at St Pat's is very proud of their achievements with their countries.
To have nine of our current players and three ex players playing international football at U17, U19 and U21 level is really exciting for them, their friends and families, our own club and the schoolboy clubs who have also been part of their development.
It was great to see Luke and Mason scoring for the Ireland U19s, Luke has been in great form for our U20s and has been scoring and assisting regularly while Mason, at just 16, is a regular for our first team and scored in his last 2 games for the club before his great goal for Ireland.
Despite the results not going their way, Billy, Sam Steward, Sam Rooney, Michael and Luke all did well for the Ireland U17s while it was brilliant to see OJ wearing the Captain's armband for Lithuania and Ivan doing well in Moldova's win too.
Josh Keeley, James Abankwah and Sam Curtis all had very successful spells with St Pat's in the Academy, and in James' and Sam's cases with our 1st team too, everyone at the club is delighted to see the lads doing so well at club level in England and Italy, and also with the Ireland U21s, they had a great win in Turkey with Sam getting the winner and they are still in the hunt to qualify so we're watching their progress with interest.
We have lots of excellent young players in our Academy, with some due to head off with the Ireland U15s next week and lots of others knocking on the door at various age levels, it's important all of our young players keep working hard, training and playing well with us at St Pat's as we enter the final stages of the season, and hopefully many of them can continue to play for their countries too."
You can see pictures of all of our internationals in action on our Facebook, Instagram and X pages.
Pictured above is Mason Melia in action for Ireland U19s, photo via B4 Slovenia / Slovenia Nations Cup Facebook page.
