Teen told to break through at Spurs to earn Ireland chance

Mick McCarthy has challenged Troy Parrott to force his way into contention at Tottenham to stand a chance of making the Republic of Ireland senior squad.

The 17-year-old year-old striker has enjoyed a remarkable few days with the Republic’s Under-21s, scoring the winner on his debut against Armenia on Friday evening before adding a double to that first goal after coming off the bench in a 3-1 European Championship qualifier victory in Sweden on Tuesday.

His feat came just hours before McCarthy’s much-changed senior side beat Bulgaria 3-1 in a friendly in Dublin with the manager having resisted the temptation to draft in players from Stephen Kenny’s squad.

Asked afterwards what Parrott had to do to catch his eye, the manager said: “Get in the first team.

“You do realise that the U21s and the U23s where he’s playing is far-removed from where we are playing, don’t you? There’s a huge difference.

“If I think he’s right, I’ll take him. We’ll try and get him watched. It’s interesting – if he hadn’t come on and scored his goals, I wonder what would the questions be had he not come on, because Stephen’s not played him?”