Wolves left-back Matt Doherty has been given his first call-up to the Republic of Ireland senior squad after a string of impressive performances for the Midlands side.
Doherty, who is naturally recognised as a right-back, but has been operating as a left-back in the last couple of months, set up Nathan Byrne to score on Tuesday night against Bristol City before grabbing an injury-time winner to secure all three points for Kenny Jackett’s men.
The Irishman has eight caps and four goals to his name for the under-21 side but has now been included in Martin O’Neill’s provisional 40-man squad for home friendlies against Switzerland and Slovakia on March 25th and 29th respectively.
The 24-year-old has been at Wolves throughout his professional six-year career bar two spells at Hibernian and Bury which helped to aid his development.
He made his debut for Wolves in a 5-0 FA Cup win over Doncaster Rovers in 2011 and has made appearances for the club in England’s top three divisions.
He played in 33 games last season as the club narrowly missed out on a return to promotion, but was forced on to the substitutes bench for the last few games of the season due to the form of talented right-back Dominic Iorfa.
However since the turn of the year, the versatile defender has made the left-back position his own following the departure of Scott Golbourne and the injury to Kortney Hause.
Doherty will now be hoping that he makes the cut and can get some game-time under his belt for the national side in a bid to prove to Martin O’Neill that he should be going to the European Championships in France this summer.
