Ciaran Clark is confident he can succeed in both his Barclays Premier League and World Cup missions as he targets a rousing end to the season.
The 23-year-old Aston Villa defender met up with the Republic of Ireland at the weekend having helped his club grab a top-flight lifeline with successive victories over fellow strugglers Reading and QPR.
He will hope to return to the Midlands next week having also played his part in positive results for Ireland in their crucial qualifiers against Sweden in Stockholm and Austria in Dublin as the race to hang on to the coattails of Group C leaders Germany hots up.
Despite his relatively tender years, Clark is one of the more experienced members of Paul Lambert’s Villa side, and he believes a successful fight against relegation, coupled with his exposure at senior international level, could make the current season a pivotal one in his fledgling career.
He said: “I am still only 23 and I am still learning my trade. Although I am one of the more experienced lads at Villa, I am still only 23, like I said, and each day in training and each game, I am always trying to learn.
“Whether there are mistakes made or you have had a good performance, you need to try to forget about it quickly and learn from it and move on and concentrate on the next games.
“But I am hoping it will stand me in good stead for the future and I will keep improving as a player.
“The last two weeks, we have had some good results. It’s always nice to come away after having two good results like that.
“It would have been a lot tougher if we had come away knowing we had lost two games. It’s always a big confidence boost when you have won two games like that.”
Villa are by no means clear of trouble at the foot of the table and are just three points better off than FA Cup semi-finalists Wigan in 18th place.
But with just four points separating Clark and his team-mates from 11th-placed Stoke, they have managed to drag more clubs in from the fringes of the battle.
Asked if he believes Villa will stay up, the defender said: “Yes. After those two games, it lifts the confidence. We are trying to take each game as it comes and concentrate on each game at a time.
“The belief has always been there with us, it’s just been about getting the results and hopefully we can start to pick up now.
“From 10th place to the bottom, it’s still very tight. With seven or eight games to go, there are a lot of things that can happen still and a lot of teams that can get sucked into it.
“A couple of wins on the bounce, it puts pressure on the other teams, so hopefully we will use the confidence from the games that we have just won and take that into the next game.”
But for the next few days at least, Clark’s attention will turn to Ireland and a different challenge.
Friday night’s trip to the Friends Arena in Stockholm and Austria’s visit to the Aviva Stadium four days later could prove pivotal to both the Republic’s qualification hopes and manager Giovanni Trapattoni’s presence at the helm.
Clark has started the last two friendlies – a 1-0 home defeat by Greece in November and a morale-boosting 2-0 victory over Poland last month – but with the fit-again Sean St Ledger and Darren O’Dea back in contention, he faces an anxious wait to see who will partner John O’Shea in central defence.
Asked if he felt he had done enough to warrant selection, he said: “I would like to think so.
“You can only do what’s been asked. To get the clean sheet was obviously good for us in the last game, and especially to get the win.
“But no matter who plays, they will go out and they will give it their best and hopefully we will do enough to get the three points.”
