{"id":634536,"date":"2026-10-02T20:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T20:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/634536\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T20:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T20:14:14","slug":"do-we-dare-ask-what-if-troy-parrott-is-only-getting-started-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/634536\/","title":{"rendered":"Do we dare ask: What if Troy Parrott is only getting started? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the privacy of Ireland<\/a>\u2019s team room at the Castleknock Hotel ahead of the World Cup<\/a> playoff against the Czech Republic in March, Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> hung a series of giant images from the delirious 3-2 victory over Hungary on the walls.<\/p>\n

This reporter gained access to the team room to interview Hallgr\u00edmsson, and one image that hung beside the PowerPoint screen stood out above the others. The photo was taken behind the goal as Troy Parrott<\/a> scored, his face contorted in desperate effort to reach a stud to the dropping ball. It was the only image we had seen that foregrounded the desperation of his effort rather than the deftness of his touch. <\/p>\n

The picture\u2019s focus on Parrott\u2019s expression reinforced the message that Hallgr\u00edmsson continually preaches about his new talisman: all of this is founded on work ethic. <\/p>\n

Asked to sing another round of hosannas to Parrott after his two goals against Austria, the head coach again pointed to his striker\u2019s less glamorous qualities. <\/p>\n

\u201cI always say that what I see in him, what I don\u2019t see in many other attackers, is defensive discipline and hard work for the defensive structure as well,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson. <\/p>\n

Look back closely at Parrott\u2019s winning goal in Budapest and you\u2019ll realise his exquisite timing in meeting Liam Scales\u2019s knock-down was a direct consequence of his work ethic.<\/p>\n

After Hungary defended an Irish ball into their penalty area, Parrott sprinted from the box to the left wing to put pressure on defender Wili Orban, forcing him to smash the ball long, directly to Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher. The rest is history, with Scales flicking on Kelleher\u2019s long pass into Parrott\u2019s path. Had Parrott stood in the penalty area and not worked so hard to close Orban down, he would have been a marked man when Scales\u2019 header fell to him.<\/p>\n

\"TroyTroy Parrott in action for Ireland against Austria in Thursday’s Nations League fixture at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Of course, this is not to say Hallgr\u00edmsson is blind to Parrott\u2019s remarkable qualities in front of goal, paying appropriate homage to his slaloming opening goal by describing it as a reminder of \u201cwhy we love the game.\u201d <\/p>\n

Parrott is in stunning goalscoring form, with nine goals in his last six competitive matches, all but one of which have come against sides ranked above Ireland. Not even Robbie Keane put together a scoring run like this. It is an unprecedented streak and it may not be sustainable in the longer term, given Parrott has converted 60 per cent of his shots across these games. For context, the game\u2019s top finisher, Erling Haaland, generally converts about one-in-three of his chances, his stats considered an outlier. Still, Parrott is in such an easy groove with Ireland there is no sense it will come to an end anytime soon. <\/p>\n

The exception in this run was last week\u2019s dowdy defeat away to Kosovo in which Parrott was isolated and kicked a ball against a wall in frustration when substituted with more than 10 minutes remaining. Against Israel and Austria, Hallgr\u00edmsson hit on a better formula to keep Parrott connected to the team, starting Adam Idah in an unfamiliar, withdrawn role behind the 24-year-old. <\/p>\n

While Hallgr\u00edmsson admits Idah\u2019s defensive work needs some fine-tuning in his new position, it is a worthwhile trade-off as it allows the Parrott-Idah partnership to ignite. The pair have genuine chemistry, and it was Idah\u2019s clever, flicked header that put Parrott in a position to exhibit his outrageous skills for the first goal against Austria. <\/p>\n

The duo have been playing together throughout Ireland\u2019s underage ranks, and since under-17 level have shared a pitch 32 times in green. Ireland have lost just six of these games, two of which were penalty shoot-outs: against the Czech Republic in March and in the 2018 Under-17 Euros quarter-final, in which goalkeeper Jimmy Corcoran was infamously sent off. <\/p>\n

\"TroyTroy Parrott celebrates with Adam Idah after scoring Ireland’s second goal from a penalty against Austria. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA <\/p>\n

Of the other four defeats, two were at underage level \u2013 a 2-0 group stage loss to Belgium at the 2018 Under-17 Euros and a 3-0 friendly loss to Wales at Under-19 level \u2013 while the only losses at senior level were the 1-0 defeat away to the Netherlands in 2023 and a 3-0 friendly loss to Portugal during John O\u2019Shea\u2019s interregnum in the summer of 2024. (There\u2019s an asterisk alongside the Dutch defeat too, as Parrott played only the last couple of minutes as a late substitute.)<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth players\u2019 strengths complement each other,\u201d says Tom Mohan, who coached Parrott and Idah at under-19 level. \u201cAdam occupies centre-backs really well with his physicality and movement, which helps take some of the physical burden off Troy. Anyone who plays with Troy will know if you make good runs off the ball, he will make clever decisions to create for you or take chances himself. Obviously, the coaching team are also making things happening on the training ground between the two lads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for a standout memory of both players, Mohan alights on a Under-19 Euro qualifier win in Longford against a Dutch side featuring Jurrien Timber and Ryan Gravneberch. Idah scored and Parrott excelled in a 2-1 win. That side went on to reach the semi-finals of the Euros but were without both Idah and Parrott as their clubs refused to release them. It is an underappreciated \u2018what if\u2019 in recent Irish football history. <\/p>\n

Now we can ask ourselves a much more exciting version of the same question: What if Troy Parrott is only getting started?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a question about where his roof is,\u201d says Hallgr\u00edmsson. \u201cI don\u2019t see the roof yet because he\u2019s continuing to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the privacy of Ireland\u2019s team room at the Castleknock Hotel ahead of the World Cup playoff against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,286628,46,202176,85262,6864,105,173811],"class_list":["post-634536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-ireland-v-israel","tag-israel","tag-nations-league","tag-real-betis","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-sports","tag-troy-parrott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}