Quartet back in NI fold

By Mark Buckingham  

Quartet back in NI fold

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Teams

  • Aston Villa
  • Birmingham City

Players

  • Keith Gillespie
  • Damien Johnson

Lawrie Sanchez has named a 16-man squad for Northern Ireland's friendly with Malta on Wednesday.

The Irish coach has opted to select Jeff Whitley, Phil Mulryne, Colin Murdock and James Quinn for the friendly.

The quartet declared themselves unavailable for the June friendly against Germany as they were free agents at the time and were worried picking up an injury would ruin their chances of finding a new club.

Sanchez has not held the decision against the four and has named them in his 16-man squad for the midweek fixture.

With Roy Carroll not in the squad, Sanchez has selected Wrexham's summer signing Michael Ingham as back-up to Maik Taylor.

There is also a place in the party for Chris Brunt of Sheffield Wednesday, with Ireland hoping for a positive result in Valletta.

Squad: Taylor (Birmingham), Ingham (Wrexham); Hughes (Aston Villa), Murdock (Rotherham), Craigan (Motherwell); Whitley, Mulryne (Cardiff), Davis (Aston Villa), Johnson (Birmingham), Brunt (Sheffield Wednesday), Elliott (Hull), Gillespie (Sheffield United); Healy (Leeds), Quinn (Peterborough), Feeney (Luton), Jones (Crewe).