Cork City goalkeeper Conor Brann admits the notion of training with Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher in the Ireland squad is something he couldn\u2019t have contemplated 18 months ago.<\/p>\n
Back then, he was unemployed, commuting from his native Galway to Bishopstown as a passenger in his Dad Pat\u2019s car. Serious consideration was afforded to quitting football.<\/p>\n
City eventually granted Brann a short-term contract for the 2025 season, rewarding him for his displays with a beefier, longer version by last August.<\/p>\n
Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson became an admirer at the same time.<\/p>\n
Encouraging words to the 22-year-old after he\u2019d watched City beat Waterford 2-0 implanted a seed of hope about international recognition.<\/p>\n
Relegation to the First Division didn\u2019t diminish that prospect. Once his duties for league leaders City are completed with Monday\u2019s refixed game at bottom side Treaty United (7.45pm), he\u2019ll make his way to the FAI\u2019s base at the Castleknock Hotel.<\/p>\n
Two friendlies are lined up, against Qatar on Thursday at Lansdowne Road followed by the trip to another World Cup bound team, Canada, on June 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have thought this was possible a year ago given the situation I was in but it was just about hard work,\u201d confesses the 22-year-old about his maiden call-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about consistent performances. Cork City is a massive club and should be in the Premier Division. That\u2019s our objective for the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeimir spoke to me after the Waterford game last season. He was really positive, telling me to keep going but I didn\u2019t really expect to get the call-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out 10 days ago about being in the provisional squad and then after beating Longford last Saturday that I was in the full squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really grateful because it will be a proper learning curve for me. I just want to learn as much as I can, working with top class goalkeepers like Caoimhin.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an unbelievable goalkeeper, so the week will be an opportunity to learn from him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s 3-0 win at Athlone Town extended City\u2019s lead at the summit to nine points and marked Brann\u2019s seventh clean sheet of the season. A couple of saves from point blank range in either half were vital.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s rued a few others that slipped away but cites back-to-back shutouts as evidence of solidity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was probably our best away performance of the season,\u201d he reflected on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cConditions were tough in the first half against the wind but we still created enough chances without putting them away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose low shots are difficult to try to get a hand on but at 2-0 the most important thing was keeping a clean sheet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re massive over the course of the season. This season we\u2019ve been leading in games only to concede which gets us down in the dressing-room so returning to clean sheets recently was important.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go again with another tough away game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brann knows two fellow uncapped players in the squad, fellow Galwegian Alex Murphy and Dawson Devoy from their time at Swindon Town, but the latter will link up with the squad for the second game.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll line for Bohemians on Monday against leaders Shamrock Rovers and again for Friday\u2019s trip to Sligo Rovers. Clubs are not obligated to release players for the Qatar game as it occurs before Fifa\u2019s international window opens.<\/p>\n
Rovers have taken a different approach with their Ireland newbies, allowing goalkeeper Ed McGinty and winger Adam Brennan to report for duty on Monday.<\/p>\n
Third-placed Bohs can go level with Rovers if they replicate the outcome of the last Dalymount meeting in February.<\/p>\n
The other two qualifiers for European competition later in the summer, Derry City and Shelbourne, meet at the Ryan McBride Brandywell. Both Premier Division games also kick off at 7.45pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork City goalkeeper Conor Brann admits the notion of training with Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher in the Ireland squad is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1113,61,60,2539,5782,43,5783],"class_list":["post-465429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-local-soccer","tag-news","tag-premiership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}