Stephen Kenny insists he has unwavering belief in Troy Parrott and reckons he will be the real deal for Ireland.
The Tottenham youngster - on loan at MK Dons - botched a glorious chance to put Ireland back in front against Scotland on Saturday night.
But one-on-one with Craig Gordon, he scuffed a weak shot which the goalkeeper easily saved with his legs.
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Ireland then lost the feisty Hampden Park clash to a late penalty and face a Nations League relegation battle against Armenia tomorrow.
But Kenny is backing Parrots to bounce back from that disappointment and hit the goal trail again having scored just once for his club all season.
The Ireland boss said: “He’s only 20 years of age and has scored four goals already for Ireland. He's improving.
“Okay, he's had a bit of a period where he's not scoring at club level but I'm sure he's capable of scoring more goals.
“With strikers they sometimes come in clusters and he's obviously having a spell of not scoring over the last few weeks.
“But he still played well on Saturday and even though he didn't score, he contributed to a lot of elements of the team.”
And Kenny had no issue with Parrott taking on the chance against Gordon rather than squaring to Michael Obafemi who played him through initially.
“No, I’ve no qualms about him taking it on. It was a great opportunity and a great pass actually from Michael to put him in," he said.
“So no, no qualms at all about that. He just didn't finish it the way he would have wanted to.
“But I thought he linked the play quite well and worked extremely hard for the team and did a lot of good things in the game.
“He scored an excellent goal that was disallowed for offside obviously and he's disappointed because he knows he should have scored the other. He knows it was a chance.”
Parrott and Obafemi were electric in June’s 3-0 win over Scotland in Dublin, weighing in with a goal apiece.
And Kenny kept faith with the pair for Hampden, before replacing Obafemi with Chiedozie Ogbene early in the second-half
“When they played together in their last appearance against Scotland, they were brilliant as a pair that night,” said Kenny of his starting strike force in Glasgow.
“They still had good moments on Saturday but probably not at that same level.
“Michael has not played (for Swansea City) in the last couple of weeks but they have shown good potential as a pairing and you could definitely see that.
“I felt Chiedozie Ogbene could have a really good impact. Chiedozie has been terrific. It was just a period of the game where we felt Chiedozie could have an impact.
“Initially he did, but we probably didn't get the service to him after that.”
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