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‘It certainly bothers him that he hasn’t scored yet’ – Stephen Kenny backs Idah and Connolly to end goal drought

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Stephen Kenny and Adam Idah

Stephen Kenny and Adam Idah

Stephen Kenny and Adam Idah

Aidan Fitzmaurice in Baku

Stephen Kenny says he's confident that the goals will come at senior international level for young striker Adam Idah after a frustrating goal-free start to his Ireland career.

Kenny's squad trained in Dublin on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's flight to Baku for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan. Shane Duffy and Aaron Connolly were able to train after they missed the first session due to bereavement (Duffy) and injury (Connolly), and Ryan Manning (Swansea City) is the only injury concern.

Norwich man Idah is almost certain to start up front in Baku, but the Cork lad has yet to score in his 10 appearances while Connolly has also not found the net in his eight caps, though Kenny - who points out that Connolly was denied two possible penalties in the campaign - believes the pair will deliver.

“He's frustrated himself. It certainly bothers him that he hasn't scored yet, but he's giving us an awful lot of attributes," Kenny said of Idah.

"He is the highest goalscorer we have in all our underage teams in our history.

“He's the record goalscorer through the underage teams, so he is a natural goalscorer, but he just hasn't been able to take one for the senior international team yet. I'm sure that's a matter of time.

“It's nearly like he [Idah] developed in the international team really because he's found minutes hard to get at Norwich. He obviously got injured playing against Wales in Cardiff – that ruled him out for four months in Norwich's promotion push last year and he only came back toward the end of the season.

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“He had a good pre-season, scored four goals, but has found it difficult to get into the team at the moment at Norwich, so his main performances have been obviously in the Carabao Cup against Liverpool, where he started in that match, and the three internationals, of course.

“Ideally we'd want our young players playing more frequently and all our players playing more frequently. That's what we want, but sometimes that's not possible," added Kenny.

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“From Aaron Connolly's point of view, it's accurate to say that there were certain penalties against Serbia away and Portugal away to put us 2-1 up with 20 minutes to go and 2-0 up midway through the second half against Portugal."

Wigan forward Will Keane is in an Ireland squad for the first time at any level but even though he is in form at club level, scoring for the Latics in League One last weekend, he is unlikely to start in Baku.

"We’ll have to see on that. He certainly could be involved, whether we take him in and start him quickly like that, maybe not. But he is a very, very good player. He’s tall, his technique's very good and he’s very intelligent," said the Ireland boss.

“He has played as a number 9 this season for Wigan, they say he plays number 10 but he plays with his back to goal a lot, linking the play and then getting in the box. He’s an intelligent footballer and he knows how to look after the ball. He keeps possession very well, links the play very, very well."

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