28-05-2025
Jim Crawford full of praise for Irish record-breaking youngster, who ‘has an eye on the Under-21 top scorer'
JIM Crawford has played a part in developing some of Ireland's brightest stars, from Dara O'Shea to Evan Ferguson and now Mason Melia.
And the Ireland Under-21 boss insists the most important thing is players get the right advice and support — in good times and bad.
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Mason Melia lining out for Ireland U21s
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Crawford is a big admirer of Melia
St Pat's star Melia, 17,
The striker has been a sensation at Richmond Park and Crawford acknowledged the sky is the limit for the Wicklow man, who has already
Crawford told SunSport: 'If Brexit wasn't around, there is an extremely high possibility that he'd have an English team — Spurs — in brackets after his name.
'He's got so much going for him. Probably the most important thing is he's a grounded boy, he's level-headed and humble.
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'Sometimes the really talented player — whether Under-12 or senior — is the most challenging to deal with.
Are those players the ones that go and reach their ceiling? There are a hell of a lot of cases where they don't because their ability got them through younger age groups.
'Mason is 180 degrees the other side of that. He's constantly working on his game.
'He's been great since he's come into camp with us. We brought him in with a view to giving him minutes last October but he had a slight injury.
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"Then we had him in the last camp in March when he became the youngest scorer in Under-21s history.
'Knowing him, he's probably got an eye on the top Under-21 scorer, which is jointly held by Kevin Doyle and Robbie Brady with seven goals.
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'He's probably thinking, 'I'm six away from that now'. But of course the senior manager likes him so who knows how long he'll be with the Under-21s?'
Melia's career has had few setbacks since he scored on his debut against Wexford in the Leinster Senior Cup as a 15-year-old.
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But Crawford understands that few careers always go in an upward trajectory.
And speaking generally, he said all players need the right support.
He explained: 'There are young players who at 14s, 15s, 16s, 17s, all the way up, they are the best in their age group.
'But when you get to a certain age . . . there are 101 stories — I'm sure every coach has a few — of players who then just become a number.
'Some players can't handle that. It's then you need to dig in, work a bit harder and get the support from your coach and people around you.
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"There is learning through adversity. It is what you see in Ireland players who are 25 or 26, when they have a bad ten minutes in a game, they know how to respond.
'It is why this time is so important for young boys.
'Even if you're in the first team and in a performance phase, you also need development. When things are not going well, you need people at the club to sit down and work things out with players.
'I'm a firm believer that players are always learning, even if they are getting up to their 30s. But especially with young players, you need to develop them even if they're in the first team.
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'They may lose confidence if they're not playing well, or even just develop bad habits, and you have to keep working with them.
'You need a support network for that, whether coaches at the club, parents, mentors, agents . . . I think the boys in our squad have that.'
CRAWFORD KNOWS FIRST-HAND
And Crawford, 52, points to his own career as a reference point.
The Dubliner was a star for Bohemians when snapped up by Newcastle United in 1995 as he went straight in to join the first team.
That was the season that the Magpies were the great entertainers as they led the Premier League only to be pegged back during the run-in by mighty
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Crawford was on the fringes as his two appearances came at the end of the following season.
He recalled: 'I was 21. You go to a club where you are competing with Dave Batty, Rob Lee, Lee Clarke, Steve Watson.
'I just went in and said, 'OK, I'll go here and break into this team'. Then you're playing your reserve games and going through your low period, it's a challenge.
'Back then you didn't have that support system around you to help you through it.
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'If I had that mentor, somebody who had been through it themselves that can say, 'You need to get out on loan here and do what I did . . .'
'I probably stayed too long at Newcastle. I should've realised, 'Am I going to get into that first team? No'.
"I was on the bench and you get caught up in that and you're thinking, 'Maybe this game, I'll get my couple of minutes'.
'You take a step back . . . you probably weren't. You were on the bench because of an injury crisis.
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'But had someone said to me to go on loan, I'd have been, 'I'm on the bench, I'm this close!''
JIM'S JOURNEY
He did have a two-month spell at Rotherham and a month at Dundee United but left St James' Park after three years for a move to Reading, before joining Shelbourne.
With the Reds, he won four league titles and was 45 minutes away from the Champions League group stages, before going into coaching.
Having taken interim charge of Shamrock Rovers in 2008, he has been with the FAI ever since — first as Under-19 assistant, then Under-18 boss, Under-21 assistant, and since 2020, Under-21 gaffer.
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His time in charge has seen the Under-21s go from also-rans to qualifying contenders, though there have been near-misses in each of the campaigns.
But he hopes the new crop of players for Euro 2027 can see Ireland make the jump and reach a first-ever finals, and even the 2028 LA Olympics.
Crawford said: 'There are a couple that have tasted the disappointment but it's a new group. It's all building towards September now.'
