Newcastle United scout William Jeffrey watched from the stands as James McClean sealed a narrow 1-0 win for the Republic of Ireland over Austria in World Cup qualifying, jouanlist Miguel Delaney confirmed via Twitter.
List of the scouts who will be at Austria-Ireland tonight pic.twitter.com/cx5Co4fnGl
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) November 12, 2016
In his tweet, Delaney does not specify which player(s) each scout will be casting their watchful eye over, but we can assume Jeffrey will not be giving Rafa Benitez his feedback on Bayern Munich’s David Alaba. Instead, Daryl Horgan of Dundalk is likely to have been on the agenda for the Magpies – a player linked with the club in the past week.
The 24-year-old has scored nine times, from midfield, in 31 league appearances this season and rightfully earned himself a call-up to Martin O’Neill’s 28-man squad to face Austria this international break.
His fine form has also attracted attention from fellow league rivals Aston Villa – who also had a scout, Leon Collins, in attendance tonight.
However, any club with Horgan on their agenda would have been left disappointed as he failed to make an appearance.
It was not a completely wasted journey for Jeffrey though, as Ciaran Clark played the full 90 minutes and helped Ireland keep their third clean sheet in four games.
