New boy hailed as 'magnificent'

Last updated : 29 April 2004 By Andy Parsons
The midfielder who has signed a pre-contract agreement at Hillsborough is currently at Manchester City and made his fifth appearance for Givens’ team on Tuesday night against Poland.

Givens, who was Jack Charlton’s assistant manager at both Wednesday and the senior Republic of Ireland team, waxed lyrical about Whelan’s performance in Tuesday’s 2-2 draw.

Whelan was instrumental in grabbing the game by the scruff of it’s neck when Ireland were 2-0 down only to level thanks to goals from Stephen Elliott and John Fitzgerald.

Givens praised his ‘magnificent’ performance by saying: “We have decent players all over the pitch but for my mind he stood out for his passing of the ball and trusty defensive duties - he did everything that was asked of him.”

Meanwhile, Alan Quinn did not even make the bench for the full team in their game against the Poles – Ireland subsequently drew the game 0–0.