Northern Eire Beneath-21s star Dane McCullough says it's a proud second for him to be following within the footsteps of cousin Luke by transferring up by the age grades at worldwide degree.
The Burnley wing-back is a part of John Schofield’s squad for his or her upcoming back-to-back friendlies towards Scotland and is in line to play a key function because the underage facet look to place a few wins on the board.
McCullough comes from footballing pedigree in Northern Eire, with cousin Luke having captained the Beneath-16s and -17s on his technique to changing into a fully-fledged worldwide, profitable six caps.
The now Glentoran defender was a part of the Euro 2016 squad in France, and now Dane is raring to have an identical affect by progressing from the Beneath-21s to the senior set-up.
"It runs within the household!" former Portadown defender Dane informed the Northern Eire Twitter account. “My household are very proud and I’m clearly very proud, too. I look as much as (Luke) quite a bit.
"It was large for me. This season I haven’t been taking part in as a lot however it is a large call-up. I’ve at all times needed to return to Northern Eire Beneath-21s and the subsequent step is clearly the seniors, however my focus is on this camp and hopefully I can get some minutes, too.”
The 18-year-old has made a splash since becoming a member of Burnley from Portadown in 2020 and was an ever-present of their Beneath-18 staff final season, making 24 appearances within the Northern Premier League.
Whereas he hasn’t acquired as a lot publicity this season, McCullough believes he has improved his recreation below the brand new fashion launched by supervisor Vincent Kompany and hopes that interprets into a number of extra alternatives.
"I like attacking and defending. Clearly full-backs change. One among my greatest strengths is getting ahead and crossing the ball, however I’m good at defending too,” he explains.
"I’ve developed my recreation an entire lot extra at Burnley. We play much more soccer today, so I’ve developed my recreation much more technically this 12 months.”
Additionally fuelling his aggressive hearth is seeing the likes of Brodie Spencer and Shea Charles obtain call-ups to the senior squad below Ian Baraclough, encouraging McCullough that he, too, could make it.
The defender performed alongside the pair all through the underage grades, and McCullough is assured that the supervisor inserting religion in younger gamers will galvanise the remainder of the squad to step up their recreation to catch the attention of the senior supervisor as properly.
"You see some gamers like Brodie, Shea – it’s large to play with them within the Beneath-19s. They're prime gamers,” provides McCullough.
"The supervisor trusts them, and to see that for a younger participant is good.”