OWEN Garvan and Shane Supple were given a special pep talk after the win over Leicester City when Sir Bobby Robson marked their card for a full Republic of Ireland call-up in the future.

OWEN Garvan and Shane Supple were given a special pep talk after the win over Leicester City when Sir Bobby Robson marked their card for a full Republic of Ireland call-up in the future, writes Derek Davis.

The former Blues and England manager, who is now Steve Staunton's right-hand man, ran the rule over the duo at Portman Road and took the opportunity to have a quiet word with them afterwards.

Robson is understood to have been delighted with man of the match Garvan and bright young keeper Supple and is looking to fast-track them into the senior squad.

Both, along with striker Billy Clarke, were selected for the Under-19s who will play in La Manga this week, but were withdrawn due to Town first-team commitments.

Although the Republic are due to play Sweden in a friendly this week, Garvan and Supple are not likely to be included but could well be looked at more closely during the summer as Staunton plans for the European Championships.

All three could be used at Under-21 level first but their priority at the moment remains in trying to get the Blues into the play-off places.

Garvan said: “On paper we've got some good home matches left so all the lads are optimistic about making the play-offs. We've got to keep performing at our best and we'll see what happens at the end of the season.”

The 18-year-old Irish midfielder opened the scoring with a well-taken goal from a Darren Currie corner and that proved to be the decisive breakthrough.

He said: “I always felt the first goal was going to be crucial and I was delighted to get it. I should have scored just before I did, though. I had a chance just before when I struck the ball well enough but I went for power rather than placement and their keeper did ever so well to get a hand on the ball and turn it round for a corner.

“The first-half was quite hard work. They were getting a lot of men behind the ball.

“We had a lot of possession and it was proving frustrating that we weren't getting anything out of it.

“We knew that they would tire in the second-half and they did that and that's when we got our goals.”