OWEN Garvan is hoping goals added to his fine form can catapult him back into the Republic of Ireland senior squad.

Derek Davis

OWEN Garvan is hoping goals added to his fine form can catapult him back into the Republic of Ireland senior squad.

Garvan netted his first Ipswich Town goal of the season in the 2-2 draw at Southampton, but a week earlier had knocked in a double for the Irish Under-21s, also in a 2-2 finish.

While his focus is on the Blues game at Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow, his desire to win a full cap is never far from his thoughts.

Garvan said: “That is down to the scouts. There were a lot of Irish players on Saturday so hopefully there were some scouts there. It was not my best game but I felt everyone did well and we deserved the win.

“It was good to be involved in the senior squad before, although a bit frustrating because I did not get to play.”

To secure an international place Garvan knows he has to keep his midfield spot with Ipswich in the face of severe competition from Macedonian international Veliche Shumulikoski, Spaniard Iván Campo and Tommy Miller.

Garvan said: “If you are in the team the first thing is to get the right result and then you want to make sure you put in a good performance yourself because you know there are so many good player waiting to come in.”

“They all have their own quality and strengths and as we have seen in the half dozen games the manager has used all of them.

Garvan revealed how training with Town and his country are so completely different with tortoise and hare approaches. Under Jim Magilton it is all quick tempo and hard running while Giovanni Trapattoni prefers a slow but steady methodical style.

Garvan said: “Trapattoni is a very passionate guy and that rubs of on the guys, which is very good. The training was markedly different. It was quite low key and we did not do a lot, but when he talks to people he is really enthusiastic.

“With Ipswich everything is done at a quick tempo but with Ireland it is slow and he doesn't let people go too quickly as he works through everything.”

Garvan showed his adaptability at St Mary's when he played just behind the striker and ended up scoring Town's first goal.

He said: “The manager wanted me to play off Jon Stead then Chuck (David Norris) played there and did all right. I was glad to get the goal, even if I was only there for a little while.”

The Blues could not keep hold of the lead Alan Quinn then gave them and Garvan insisted Ipswich need to be more deadly if they want to go a couple of places better than the eighth place they finished last season.

They are currently 14th, but could have been as high as eighth had they won at Southampton, who moved off the bottom.

Garvan said: “We wanted to see it out after going ahead. We need to be a lot more ruthless especially away from him.”

Town are already nine points behind the leaders Wolves and Birmingham City, but Garvan insists a good run by Town will soon put that right.

Town hope to have both Gareth McAuley and Ben Thatcher back for the trip to Hillsborough as they recover from dead legs, but a question mark is hanging over Richard Naylor, who picked up a knock at Southampton.