Mark for FAI Elite Phase Tournament

CLONES teen Mark Connolly has been selected for the Republic of Ireland under-17 squad which will take part in the forthcoming UEFA Under-17 Elite Phase tournament which takes from 13 -18 March, manager Sean McCaffrey has confirmed.

The former Monaghan United player has played full time for Wolverhampton Wanderers since January of this year. It was while playing for Dundalk Academy that Mark was spotted by Republic of Ireland scouts at the Kennedy Cup in Limerick at Under 13 level. After that, six foot one inch Mark was spotted by Wolves while playing at under-15 level for Ireland.

Ireland topped their European Championship first phase qualifying mini-group in September with a maximum nine points from three games and have home advantage once more for the second, Elite.

The Irish will open that section of the qualifiers against Germany on 13 March at Terryland Park in Galway followed by a meeting with Greece two days later on 15 March at Lissywoollen Stadium in Athlone. Their final group game comes on 18 March when they face Portugal back at Terryland Park. Only the winner of the pool will advance to the European Championships which are to be staged in Turkey during May.

Republic of Ireland defeated Finland twice last week in Buckley Park in what was an impressive warm up to the qualifiers. Ireland recorded a resounding 3-0 victory in the first game between the nations on Tuesday 19 February and continued their fine run of form with another outstanding 6-1 victory on Thursday 21st February.

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