Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Keiren Westwood gave Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill food for thought ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Austria next weekend with a confident second half display against Uruguay.
Darren Randolph started in goal for the Republic in Dublin on Sunday and although the hosts took the lead they went in 1-1 at half-time and Uruguay’s goal could have been attributed to a goalkeeping error by the West Ham stopper. Randolph came out to try and deal with a deep free-kick that was hoisted in towards the penalty spot but was beaten to the ball by Gimenez to level the score.
Westwood came on at half-time and he made an excellent stop to preserve the lead the Ireland had gained early on in the second half, diving full stretch to tip away a goal bound effort. The home side wrapped up a 3-1 win and with Westwood keeping a clean sheet in his 45 minutes of football on the back of another excellent season with the Owls, he may well come into consideration to start the game next Sunday.