HE HAS a few years on most of Ireland’s recent debutants, but it’s easy to understand when Seán St Ledger speaks why Liam Brady would mention “maturity” very early in a list of the Preston defender’s qualities.

The 24-year-old looks as comfortable in the heart of a media scrum as he did in June at the centre of an international defence. More than two months on, he admits he was nervous before the game in Sofia but there is no false modesty when asked how he reckons he did. He has recently watched the game and, like Giovanni Trapattoni it seems, he was happy.

“I enjoyed watching it. I hadn’t realised how much we defended in the second half. And I didn’t realise how hostile the atmosphere was. On the pitch you’re concentrating really hard on what’s going on in the game. But, looking back, it sounded like a real eastern European atmosphere – and it’s something I’d love more of.”

The scale of the step-up caused some concern among supporters and, he concedes, he was a little daunted himself. “It was such a massive game and before it I was pretty nervous to be fair. Coming from Preston (who had just lost out in the Championship play-offs) and the next thing you know you’re playing against Berbatov and Bojinov – it was a little bit different.

“But I felt like I did pretty well in Bulgaria although obviously it was only my first qualifying game and I need to build on it. This game is a great opportunity for me to try to stake a claim and put it in the manager’s mind and the staff’s mind that I can do a job. And after that, the Cyprus game is massive.”

St Ledger, as it happens, was on the bench in Cyprus on that awful night nearly three years ago when Ireland suffered what was probably the worst defeat in the team’s history. It might be argued that he did well to avoid being tainted by closer association with the defeat although given Andy O’Brien’s lack of fitness, it probably makes more sense to argue that Steve Staunton should have handed him his first start.

His memories of that night are, he says quietly, “Not good . . . it was a real low for everyone.”

Asked if he felt he might have started, he admits, “ I thought I might have done. In training we were doing shape and I was at right back and I thought I might get a shout. Then there was the sending off (Richard Dunne) and I thought I might come on, but I didn’t.”

The evidence so far suggests he has a good deal to look forward to in international terms although it remains to see whether his progress will be halted, at least temporarily, by the return to fitness of Steve Finnan.

“Yeah, he’s played in the Premiership and he’s a quality player and it would make the battle for places a lot tougher, ’cos Josh (John O’Shea) can come in at centre-half.”

So, it is put to him, you don’t want him to come back? “I’m not saying that!” he replies swiftly and with a grin. “I like Steve, he’s a top man, a good lad. And you want as many quality players in the squad as possible. Everyone here is itching to get to the World Cup and whatever way we can do that, then great.

“But obviously I want to play and it’s down to me now.”