Michael O’Connor (Crewe Alexandra), Darron Gibson (Royal Antwerp) and Darren O’Dea (Celtic) were part of the original 18-man panel but were withdrawn by their clubs over the weekend. Givens has decided to make today’s trip to Luxembourg with 17 players.

Wilson is a promising midfield player who was born in Northern Ireland. The 19-year old spent a loan spell at Yeovil Town last season but has been a first-team squad member at Portsmouth this season. He featured for the Republic of Ireland U19 team during the UEFA qualification campaign of 2004/5.

O’Halloran (19) is a Cork-born defender and has become a regular for Aston Villa‘s reserve team, under the management of Irish senior assistant coach Kevin MacDonald. He was called into the U19 squad for last season’s friendly tournament in La Manga but was unavailable due to club commitments.

Shane Long of Reading, who played 20 minutes as a substitute in Saturday’s 1-0 Premiership defeat to Chelsea, is one of seven players in the squad that formed part of last season’s Ireland U19 panel.

Givens is, once again, building a new squad team having seen several of his previous squad move beyond the age limit after their European Championship elimination in September following the 1-0 defeat by Belgium.

He will use the game to assess the players available to him for the qualifying series of the UEFA Championship of the 2007/’08 season, which gets underway in the Autumn of 2007.

Republic of Ireland U21 Squad:
Darren Quigley (UCD)
Darren Randolph (Charlton Athletic)
Tony Kane (Blackburn Rovers)
Joe O'Cearuill (Arsenal)
James Hand (Huddersfield Town)
Stephen O’Halloran (Aston Villa)
Patrick Cregg (Falkirk)
Marc Wilson (Portsmouth)
Gary Dicker (UCD)
John Paul Kelly (Bohemians)
Ian Morris (Scunthorpe United)
Andy Keogh (Scunthorpe United)
Anthony Stokes (Falkirk)
James O'Brien (Celtic)
Shane Long (Reading)
Darren Stapleton (Unattached)
Richard Keogh (Bristol City)

Latest News