Occy in N.Ireland U-21s

Midfielder Michael O’Connor has been called up for the Northern Ireland U-21s. O’Connor had previously captained the Northern Ireland youth teams up to the U-20s before changing his allegience to play a couple of non-competitive games for the Republic of Ireland U-21s.

However, Occy has today converted back to play for the Northern Ireland U-21s and looks set to be involved for their Euro 2009 qualifiers against Luxembourg and Moldova in a couple of weeks.

Due to the U-21 fixtures taking place over the weekend of November 17th, if Owain Fon Williams and Simon Church are later called up for the Wales U-21s it will mean Crewe will have grounds to postpone the Northampton game due to international call-ups.

N Ireland U21 squad: Tuffey (Partick Thistle), Carson (Sunderland), Kane (Blackburn Rovers), Evans (Manchester United), Taylor (Hearts), Casement (Ipswich Town), McArdle (Rochdale), McVey (Coleraine), Cathcart (Manchester United), Callaghan (Ballymena Utd), Turner (Bohemians), Garrett (Stoke City), Buchanan (Bury), Mulgrew (Linfield), McKenna (Tottenham Hotspur), McCaffrey (Hibernian), Carvill (Wrexham), Stewart (Linfield), Fordyce (Glentoran), O’Connor (Crewe Alexandra), Waterworth (Lisburn Distillery), Ward (Chesterfield).