James Kelly admits he will be a very proud man when he leads his country out for the first time.
Kilkenny man James was named as the skipper of his country recently, and will skipper his country for the first time when the Ireland team play the dangerous and tough Kazakhstan outfit at 8am on Thursday morning.
It is an occasion he is looking forward to immensely as he told us: “I am very proud to be named the captain it’s a great honour and I’m looking forward to leading the team out for our first game.”
Kelly was not present when Ireland competed in miniEURO for the first time last autumn, but is happy with the way things are progressing under new manager Lee Kill, adding: “The squad is shaping up well. There is a great buzz among the players in training, we’ve been working hard in training and hopefully all our hard work will pay off in Montenegro. Lee has done a lot of work behind the scenes like studying the games from last year and he has us practicing certain tactics that will help us be a success.”
Ireland kick off their campaign on Thursday and there will be plenty more in the build-up.