Midfielder delighted former St Kevin's team-mate Jeff Hendrick is in squad, writes EMMET MALONE

Keith Andrews had the resigned air of a man who feels he’s getting on a bit as he joked the other night that he has, in a few short months, gone from playing chess with Damien Duff while on international trips to playing Mario Kart with Robbie Brady.

The young Hull City player’s generation is certainly making itself felt all of a sudden. This time around, the 21-year-old is joined by his long-time friend and St Kevin’s Boys team-mate Jeff Hendrick in the senior squad.

Brady is anxious to ensure he is involved in next month’s World Cup qualifiers as his Derby County friend dips his toe in the senior international waters for the first time. “I think I’ve known him since we were around five years old,” says Brady of Hendrick. “Ever since then, Jeff’s been brilliant, one of my best mates growing up through football.

“I just had a chat with him earlier and we were saying how surreal it was, the two of us sitting in the room. We were just kids signing for St Kevin’s together when we were younger and we’ve come every step of the way together since. It’s great to have him in the squad. We played all the way up and then all the age levels for Ireland and now the senior team.”

Make a splash

Though a little raw and inexperienced looking at times, Brady has already done enough to suggest he can play a significant part for Giovanni Trapattoni over the course of this campaign and while he looks to maintain his early international momentum he is confident that Hendrick can make a splash if given a chance tomorrow night.

“He’s quality,” he says. “He’s a big, strong, powerful midfielder. He’s got great feet, he’s clever. He’s just an all-round good midfield player. Even growing up you could see he was always one of the better ones around. Jeff had a big name since he was a kid. It’s good that he’s living up to it now.”

Brady acquired quite a reputation himself as he came through the underage ranks with the fact that he was at Manchester United somewhat inevitably adding to the weight of expectation. Recently, though, he conceded defeat in the battle to break into the Old Trafford first team, opting to move permanently to Hull City after impressing while on loan.

A United fan

The decision was a difficult one and wasn’t made any easier by the fact that he is a United fan but Brady left on good terms and in good spirits, recognising that the writing was on the wall when the talk of a big bid for Wilfried Zaha started to grow legs and grateful to a manager who set him on the road to a very good career.

“Yeah, I’ll always have the utmost respect and time for him (Alex Ferguson) because of the amount of things he’s done for me over the last few years. He’s brilliant.

‘Best manager’

“Just being around him day-in, day-out is great. He’s the best manager in the world; he’s proven that over how many years. His CV says it all. The experience he has got has brushed off a lot on us at United and I’ll try to bring at least some of that with me.

“It’s been brilliant,” he continues, “but there are a lot of players there. It was a busy time and I didn’t want to be sitting around. I want to stay in the international set-up and it (the move) will help that. I’m a Man United fan, I always have been and I always will be but I’m a Hull player now and I’m looking forward to playing every week.”

On the club front, promotion is the rather obvious target over the months ahead but at a time of some upheaval within the Ireland set up there is clearly an opportunity to build on what he has done so far and establish himself quickly as something of a regular in the squad.

“I’m looking forward to the game on Wednesday, to getting some minutes on the pitch and hopefully showing what I can do. That’s the plan. We’ll use this game as preparation but I’ll have to use it as a stepping stone to getting a place in the starting 11 in the qualifiers.

“There are some fresh faces in,” he concluded, “and it’s just getting to the stage where we need to gel together and get some good results. We have got some really tough games coming up but it’s 90 minutes of football and the lads are all feeling good, so hopefully we can get some good results.”