McClean's relieved to log off and play again

Aidan Fitzmaurice

JAMES McCLEAN says that his tweeting days are over as he logs off and puts his attention to winning back the trust of the Ireland manager and also pushing himself up the ladder at international level.

The Sunderland man came off the bench and put in a very impressive display in last night's 4-1 win over Oman as McClean had three good chances to score. The fact that he was 'only' a sub underlined that he was still being made to pay for his tweet after Friday's win in Kazakhstan.

McClean seems to have taken his punishment -- being made to apologise in front of his team-mates and then being left out of the starting XI last night -- on the chin and in fairness to the Derry native he didn't hide from the facts last night after the game.

He freely spoke to the media, even giving a polite few minutes to a lady from Oman TV.

"It was great to get on the pitch after all that's happened over the past while, I'm glad it's all over now," McClean said.

"That's me done with Twitter, I'm going to stop tweeting and Facebook-ing now and I have put the matter to bed. We're able to laugh and joke about what happened last week

"I was desperate to get on the pitch and I would have been delighted to score even one goal but to get on the pitch was great," added McClean, who once again had a great reception from the Ireland fans, with the ex-Derry City man even managing a smile at a new song from the terraces ("He tweets what he wants, he tweets what he wants").

"The fans were amazing and they stuck with me from day one," he says.

He's won the fans over but whether he can win back the trust of his manager in terms of getting into the team for the next game, at home to Germany next month, is another matter. "The greatest honour is to play for your country and I want to do that, that's where the frustration of last week came from but hopefully it's all sorted and put to bed now."