Cullen called by Ireland U19s

West Ham United youngster Josh Cullen has been included in the Republic of Ireland U19 squad for an international friendly with the Netherlands.

Cullen is in Paul Doolin's 18-man squad for the match, which will take place at Tallaght Stadium in Dublin - the home of Shamrock Rovers - on Monday 8 September.

The midfielder, who featured for West Ham's first team in pre-season, will hope to earn his first cap at this level and put himself in the frame for Ireland's UEFA European U19 Championship qualifying campaign, which will see them meet Malta, Gibraltar and Switzerland in November.

"At underage level you appear to change personnel almost every ten months and we're starting with the 1996-born group of players," said Doolin. "I'm looking forward to playing against Holland. Aron Winter is their coach now and I'm expecting that it'll be good test.

"It's not a bad age-group for us, they had a couple of good campaigns and were unlucky not to qualify at U17 level. We also had a few of these lads in an U18 game in Czech Republic with a lot of home-based players.

"We've about 50 players we could pick from here, the UK and abroad. You're looking at players in these games. It's hard to get a flow from these games but you are hoping to get your point across."

Cullen was capped by England at U16 level before switching his international allegiance to the Republic of Ireland, for whom he was capped twice at U18 level in April 2014.

The 18-year-old won the Dylan Tombides Award in May after being recognised as the Academy's outstanding player for 2013/14.