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Lowry timing it right

by Marc Fox

Shane Lowry, Australia's latest dual-nationality recruit, might not have stepped out in the green and gold of the Socceroos against Oman, but his hopes of boarding the plane for South Africa with the rest of national team squad have certainly grown this week.

Perth-born Lowry is the former Ireland under-21 defender who in September elected to switch his allegiances to Australia and pursue his senior international ambitions with the country of his birth.

That decision looked an even better one following the Republic of Ireland's acrimonious exit from the World Cup playoffs at the hands, literally, of France on Wednesday.

But it's not Ireland's misfortune, but rather something altogether closer to his new home, which gave Lowry good reason to smile.

With the World Cup countdown approaching 200 days to go and with Australia's next international fixture not until January, Lowry won't be alone in knowing that regular domestic matches are the primary method for booking one of Pim Verbeek's 23 spots.

And this week's glowing appraisal from current domestic manager Paul Sturrock would be music to the 20-year-old's ears.

Lowry has become an instant regular at Sturrock's Plymouth Argyle after Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill allowed the Western Australian to leave on loan to the Championship strugglers. His current loan deal is due to expire in a month's time, but Sturrock has been so impressed he hopes to extend the terms until the end of the season - right up to the start of the World Cup finals.

"I do feel we have benefited his career and I think there is no harm in him being with us until the end of the season," the Scot said this week. "Lowry ... would be a miss if [he] left, so we will have to wait and see how the conversations go."

"I wouldn't expect to have a chance of signing him permanently. (But) I have to find out where he is in the (Aston Villa) pecking order."

With Villa's stocks in central defence reinforced following summer transfer window raids for Richard Dunne and James Collins, and with no European competition to get in the way of the Premiership run-in, the chances of O'Neill granting Sturrock and Lowry's wish seems high.

But it is against the backdrop of the news that fellow fringe Socceroos Matt Spiranovic and Chris Coyne are both desperate for loan moves in the January transfer window which greater secures Lowry's position with the national team.

He has been an ever present for Plymouth this term and as such has earned call-ups to each of the past three Socceroos squads.

By contrast, neither Spiranovic nor Coyne has featured in those get togethers and both have pledged to search out January loan moves to reignite their faltering hopes for a trip to South Africa next June.

Spiranovic has turned out just once for Bundesliga side Nuremberg this season after injury and both he and officials at the German club appear on the same wavelength in demanding a move in the New Year.

Coyne, meanwhile, could jeopardise a place in Perth Glory's side for the run into - and possible involvement in - the A-League finals to secure what's looking an outside shot at returning to Verbeek's plans.

The odds on the pair moving in January are high - but their respective destinations remain up for debate. And of course there's no guarantees of playing as another pair of hopeful Socceroos defenders can testify.

Jade North's career at Korean side Incheon United has fallen flat since his move from the Newcastle Jets, while Michael Beauchamp has barely played for Al-Jazira since prematurely ending his European dream in a bid for greater game-time in the Middle East.

Marc Fox

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