Changes to Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad The Republic of Ireland Under-21’s have added three of the Airtricity League’s finest young players to their squad for their final EUFA European Championship qualifying match against Turkey on Tuesday night.

Striker Paddy Madden (Bohemians) and Karl Sheppard (Galway United) have been drafted in along with defender Seamus Conneely (Galway United) following a flurry of forced withdrawals due to injury and suspension.

A Statement read:

The Republic of Ireland Under-21s have been forced to make a number of changes to the squad ahead of Tuesday’s UEFA European Championship qualifier against Turkey.

Paddy Madden (Bohemians), Seamus Conneely (Galway United) and Karl Sheppard (Galway United) have all been drafted into the squad to replace Alan Judge (groin), Gavin Gunning (groin), Anthony Stokes (suspended), Eddie Nolan (suspended) and Shane O’Connor (hamstring).

Judge and Gunning both picked-up injuries during Friday night’s match against Switzerland in Lugano, which Ireland were unlucky to lose 1-0. Stokes and Nolan both received yellow cards during the match, ruling them out of Tuesday’s final UEFA European Championship qualifying match. O’Connor, who himself was a late replacement for the injured Owen Garvan, injured himself in training on Thursday and could play no part in Friday’s match.

Temporary Under-21 manager Wim Koevermans was disappointed to lose against Switzerland considering the number of goal scoring chances the team created. Having created eight chances in the first half, Koevermans felt his team should have wrapped-up the match in the first period.

The pattern of the match mirrored many games and Under-21 level this campaign. Statistics from UEFA reveal that Ireland have created 104 goal attempts in their nine matches so far in the campaign. Not only is this the highest number of goal attempts in Group 2 (compared with 83 for Switzerland, 77 for Armenia, 73 for Estonia, 67 for Georgia and 55 for Turkey), it is the fourth highest number in the entire competition, with only Germany (143), Netherlands (121) and Romania (107) having engineered more goal scoring opportunities than Ireland.

“It was a strange game,” he said. “In the first half we played very well and created some great chances, but it’s not enough to create chances you also have to score them. If we had scored two or three of them then it probably would have been game over, but the Swiss made a change to their midfield at half time and after two minutes of the second half they scored. The game turned a little bit in the second half. We brought on an extra striker to try to get the equaliser but it wasn’t to be. We deserved to get a goal but unfortunately it didn’t happen.”