Nathan Collins: Republic of Ireland defender backs John O’Shea to become permanent manager

Republic of Ireland defender Nathan Collins has given his support to John O’Shea becoming the permanent manager.

When asked by RTE Sport if he wished for O’Shea to get the job on a permanent basis, Collins replied: “I would, yes.”

The FAI are set to announce a new permanent manager next month.

Former Republic of Ireland and Manchester United defender O’Shea was handed the temporary role following the departure of Stephen Kenny.

A goalless draw with Belgium on Saturday was followed by defeat in Dublin three days later with Xherdan Shaqiri’s free-kick securing victory for Switzerland.

Collins has been impressed by O’Shea and his backroom team, which includes former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr.

“I guess it’s a fresh start – I think you can see in the coaches and manager that they’re youthful but we also have that twist of experience with Brian there,” he added.

“I think it was a really good performance [against Switzerland], I genuinely do. I think probably from after minute 30, we dominated the game. We probably started a bit slow but we tweaked things, got after it a little bit more and I think we dominated the game.

“We created the better chances, we played better, we took risks and it worked out and I think we played really well.”