‘His time will come’: Portsmouth boss’ message to starlet after promising Fratton arrival
He caught the eye in pre-season following his arrival from Dundalk, but has yet to feature for John Mousinho’s side in the Championship.
Eoin Kenny has been told his moment will arrive as he waits for a Championship breakthrough.
But the Pompey boss told the promising attacker he is going to need a period of adjustment, as he settles in at Fratton Park.
Mousinho on Kenny: ‘We’re just going to stay patient with Eoin, but his time will come’
Kenny made an encouraging start to life at PO4, following his arrival from League of Ireland side Dundalk in July.
The attacker featured significantly in pre-season, featuring in all of Pompey’s first-team warm-up games ahead of the new campaign.
Kenny then was given a runout in front of 53,369 supporters at West Ham United in the Carabao Cup, on the opening day of the EFL campaign.
There’s been no playing time for the 20-year-old since, however, with a place on the bench as an unused sub against Cardiff City his only squad involvement.
Mousinho underlined Kenny is making a huge step up to the English second tier, with some patience required as he makes that transition.
He said: ‘Eoin’s start has been fine.
‘There’s a load of competition for places in the squad and Eoin’s another one who we brought in to affect the squad now - but he’s also for the long term as well.
‘So we’re just going to stay patient with Eoin, but his time will come.
‘The situation with Eoin was he came on and did well against West Ham.
‘We monitor Eoin every day, we watched him closely through pre-season and we’ve got high hopes for him.
‘But in terms of coming in and playing in the Championship it’s going to be a really different kettle of fish for him.
‘We think Eoin will develop into a really good player, but he’s still relatively young.
‘He’s coming over to a different county and coming over to a different league.
‘That’s a difficult thing to adjust to, so he will need that adjustment period.’
Kenny’s current focus is on international duty, after featuring for the Northern Ireland under-21 squad against Malta last weekend.
He impressed in the 4-0 win grabbing an assist, with Tommy Wright’s side also in action against Georgia last night. They face Greece at home next Tuesday.
Adrian Segečić is part of the Croatia under-21 in Ukraine tomorrow, before going to Lithuania on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, Terry Devlin could feature for Northern Ireland’s senior squad in Ukraine this evening, ahead of entertaining Georgia on Monday.
Iyad Mohamed’s Comoros take on Senegal in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Sunday.