Ross County striker Ronan Hale is eyeing a long-awaited Northern Ireland call-up after his double at Motherwell helped lift the Highlanders out of the drop-zone.
The 26-year-old former Cliftonville forward scored a goal in each half before skipper Connor Randall chipped in with a late cracker to sink their troubled managerless hosts 3-0 in the Premiership on Saturday.
It takes Hale’s tally to four goals in his last three games, seven in the league, and 12 for the season overall.
The Belfast-born player has since last year been waiting for governing body FIFA to clear him for Northern Ireland international selection, having previously played for the Republic of Ireland at under-21 and under-19 levels.
The paperwork has finally been registered, and Hale is now eligible for a call-up for Michael O’Neill’s squad, with a friendly at home to Switzerland on March 21 a possible target.
Last year, Hale was clear in his desire to make a commitment to Northern Ireland, saying: “International football is massive, when Michael O’Neill phoned me and said the chance was there to play international football, it wasn’t an opportunity I was going to let go and hopefully it gets sorted sooner rather than later.”
Hale, who returned to Don Cowie’s line-up at Fir Park, fired a fresh reminder of his capabilities with two cool finishes and his link-up play with Noah Chilvers continues to be a big asset for County.
‘Starting to find my feet again’
With matters looking up for Hale for club and country, he has every reason to be upbeat.
When asked about the chance of now being picked for his country, he said: “Yeah, it’s finally through, so I need to keep doing the business and hopefully keep up my form and we’ll see where it takes us.
“I had a wee sticky patch there for a while, but it’s now four in my last three, so I’m starting to find my feet again.
“That’s the way strikers go, you don’t score for a few and they come along. It’s just about digging in there and hopefully they keep coming but more, so we get the results.”
Four away victories in five fixtures
Motherwell were led by caretaker boss Stephen Frail after former Ross County manager Stuart Kettlewell resigned.
Well have now lost five successive matches and dropped out of the top half on goal difference. A new head coach is set to be announced in the coming days.
For County, their confident display resulted in a fourth away victory in five games, having won in Dundee, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock before a 4-0 loss at Ibrox.
Before beating Dundee on Boxing Day, they had not won a league match outside Dingwall for 15 months.
It’s quite a turnaround and moves them into 10th place, eight points away from basement side St Johnstone and closer to the top half of the division within an extremely tightly-packed group.
This Saturday’s visitors to the Global Energy Stadium, Dundee, are now two points and one place below them.
Seeking to maintain momentum
Hale, who has also played for Derry City, Crusaders and St Patrick’s Athletic, admits the day in North Lanarkshire could not have gone much better for County.
He said: “I think that was a perfect performance from us.
“Maybe in the first half we weren’t at our best, but then I feel it opened up for ourselves in the second half and we took advantage of it and came out 3-0 winners.
“Now we’re just focusing on getting as many points as we can and picking them up on the road as well as at home.
“We’re looking forward to a wee home game next week and see if we can bring the momentum into that.”
With seven games to go before the split, County have as good a chance as any side to aim for the top six.
Hale added: “We’re focusing on ourselves. The league changes that much and there’s that short gap between everyone, so we’ll keep focusing on ourselves and see where it takes us at the end of the season and hopefully we’re up there.”
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