Mitchell continues with Northern Ireland under-21s
Northern Ireland have two UEFA U21 Championship games coming up this month and Burnley goalkeeper Conor Mitchell, who established himself as first choice at this level last season, has been named in Ian Baraclough’s squad.
They play Spain next Thursday at Shamrock Park, home of Portadown, before turning their attentions to a game against Iceland on Monday, 26th Match, at Coleraine Showgrounds.
Conor will face competition from Leeds goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell and both of them are now under the watchful eye of Michael O’Neill as is Celtic goalkeeper Conor Hazard who is currently on loan at Falkirk.
Hazard has been called up to the full squad on this occasion and O’Neill said: “Conor Hazard is a goalkeeper that we have high hopes for. He trained the with the senior squad last June. We have three young keepers in Hazard, Mitchell and Bailey. The three will be rotated and managed between the under-21s and senior side going forward.”
Mitchell, who is now in his sixth season at Burnley and has recently been captaining our under-23 side, spent the first half of the season with Chester having previously had loans with Sheffield and Bradford.
He has won nine caps at under-21 level for his country having made a debut 18 months ago and he earned rave reviews in a couple of his more recent appearances. Should he earn a call up for the full squad, and should he win a cap, it would not be the first time a Burnley player has been capped by Northern Ireland without having played in our first team. Willie Irvine made his Burnley debut in May 1963 but had already played for his country; Willie’s first international appearance came against Wales in Belfast in the previous month.
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