ROBBIE KEANE will lead Ireland to next summer’s European Championship after having finished as the team’s top scorer in a qualifying tournament for the fifth time in seven attempts. The Dubliner was previously the side’s most prolific player in the bids to qualify for the major tournaments held in 2000, 2004 (joint), 2006 and 2010. The seven goals he scored this time around, though, is his highest tally yet.

Overall, Giovanni Trapattoni used 26 players during the course of the course of the 12 games it took the Irish to secure qualification with eight of those starting and finishing the campaign as regulars for the Italian.

The players to lose out over the course of the 15 months were Kevin Kilbane, Paul Green and Liam Lawrence. Two of those, Green and Lawrence, were replaced by established players returning from injury – Keith Andrews and Damien Duff – but Stephen Ward was the biggest winner of the group stage, breaking into the side to make his competitive debut against Slovakia in September and then starting the four remaining matches for which he was available.

Green’s involvement in the campaign ended against Slovakia away when he limped off with a hamstring injury. At that point he had played every minute of the opening four group games but has subsequently endured a long stint out with another injury.

Lawrence simply drifted to the margins with the midfielder playing all of the opening games against Armenia and Andorra before being replaced against Russia.

Trapattoni may have seen him as the source of some of Ireland’s problems in that game for while he made the bench four times subsequently he hasn’t kicked a ball competitively for Ireland since and must now be concerned about his place in the squad for the finals.

Outside of Trapattoni’s favoured first 11, Stephen Kelly and Darren O’Dea have established themselves as favoured stand-ins at the back while Keith Fahey and Stephen Hunt were the most used replacements in midfield.

The competition for places up front has become more intense with Shane Long now scrapping it out with Simon Cox and, most recently, Jonathan Walters.

Benchmarks

Subs who never made it on:Greg Cunningham (4), Paul McShane (pictured, 4), David Forde (3), Seamus Coleman (2), Damien Delaney (1), Cillian Sheridan (1), Joe Murphy (1), Marc Wilson (1), Ciarán Clark (1).

Players who made the official squad at least once but not the bench: Keith Treacy, Darren, Randolph