The Boys in the Netherlands

Three local lads from Waterford FC’s academy had the honour of representing their country last week on a week-long camp with the Republic of Ireland Under-15 team in the Netherlands. Jack Barden, Billy Carney and Nathan Power all continued their budding international careers with three games against the Dutch in a very productive trip for Ireland manager John Cotter. 

The squad flew out to Holland on Sunday the 1st of March with friendly matches scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. They stayed in the village of Doorwerth on the outskirts of Arnhem with the three games played at the nearby town of Uden. With underage squads so often dominated by players from the Dublin clubs (thirteen from the big four Premier Division clubs in this squad, including eight from Shamrock Rovers), it is an outstanding achievement for Waterford FC to have three players regularly called up to this group. The rest of the squad was made up of one player each from Manchester United, Cork City, Finn Harps and Linfield as well as two from Galway United. 

 

Jack Barden, Nathan Power and Billy Carney in Uden

 

All three friendly matches ended in narrow defeats for the Irish, but they competed very well against a Dutch team largely drawn from the elite academies of Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven. Tuesday afternoon’s opener saw Billy Carney, a former New Ross Town schoolboy player, starting in midfield for the Boys in Green while Nathan Power came on as a substitute after 75 minutes. Holland had their clearest margin in this game as they won 4-2 with Manchester United prospect Ben Lyne, originally from Clare, bagging Ireland’s goals with right and left-foot finishes.

Cotter made ten changes - routine in this type of training camp - for Wednesday’s match with Jack Barden (a product of Southend United locally) playing the full ninety minutes in defence and Power (previously of Waterford Crystal and Bohs) starting up front. The defence, as a whole, was highly-praised by those in attendance including men’s team assistant manager John O’Shea who must have been very pleased to see more Waterford players following in his footsteps on the international scene. In a very close game, Holland still did enough to win 1-0 thanks to a first half goal.

 

Three Blues in the starting line-up on Friday

 

Thursday was reserved for training and rest before the final game kicked off at 2pm local time on Friday at Uden’s Sportpark Parkzicht. This time, Waterford FC had the extraordinary achievement of having three players in the starting line-up for Ireland. It was a terrific, back-and-forth game with the hosts taking a first-half lead before Cork City’s Destiny Okharedia equalised in the 35th minute. The Dutch pushed into a two-goal lead before Fionn McCormack Crowe (who made the move from Athlone Town to Shamrock Rovers this year) reacted to a saved shot to bring the score back to 3-2, but that was how it remained at the final whistle. 

After a thoroughly enjoyable and successful week with the national team, the lads then flew home on Friday evening. Such is the enthusiasm and energy of youth that Jack, Billy and Nathan all played again on Saturday for Waterford’s Under-15 team in a 5-0 win over Wexford with Power and Carney scoring while Barden registered an assist. Well done to all three ‘Blues in Green’ who continue to do the club and region proud.