McCarthy plays down prospect of birthday cap call for Irish

Published on Sunday 9 November 2008 20:14

HAMILTON ACADEMICALS 1 FALKIRK 1

HAMILTON midfielder James McCarthy could celebrate his 18th birthday this Wednesday by earning a call-up to the senior Republic of Ireland squad, but insists the perfect present would be a league victory at Hearts.

The teenager opened the scoring in his side's 1-1 home draw against Falkirk on Saturday, helping the New Douglas Park team to earn their first point in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League since September following a run of six straight defeats.

McCarthy, who has endured criticism from opposition fans for his choice to play for his grandfather's nation instead of Scotland, said: "It would be great to get a call-up, but neither the club nor I have heard anything so we'll need to wait and see what happens. But I'm not going to get carried away. The stick I've had doesn't bother me. I just get on with my own game, and it was great to score a goal in this match, although it was disappointing to lose an equaliser in the second half."

McCarthy lashed home an impressive finish to put Hamilton in front against Falkirk shortly before the interval, and is now hoping to help his team collect their fourth win of the season when they visit Tynecastle on his birthday.

He said: "I would rather have had a win than a goal. I thought we should have won the game as we were a little bit better than Falkirk; and especially when we're at home, we need to start picking up points against teams round about us in the table. My goal was a decent strike. Mark McLaughlin tried an overhead kick, but ended up hitting it back to me with his studs. He says he meant it."

Falkirk scorer Michael Higdon found the net within two minutes of coming on for Patrick Cregg at the start of the second half, and was delighted that his instant impact earned his side a point and ended his own nine-game drought.

He said: "It wasn't a bad first touch. It's probably the quickest impact I've made and it was a good goal. I just tried to get as much power on it as I could and luckily it went in the top corner.

"I've been needing a goal for the past few weeks because I haven't scored for a while, not since we played Raith in the second round of the League Cup (in August]. For a striker, that's rubbish, but hopefully this will let me kick on. Hopefully I've done enough to get a start against Inverness on Wednesday."