Republic of Ireland Under-21 manager Jim Crawford sees Aaron Connolly as a 'striker' ahead of Israel clash

Jim Crawford will today attempt to go where no Irish manager has gone before.

The Republic of Ireland Under-21s have never qualified for a major tournament. Israel are the team which stand in their way of creating history.

Ireland have been decimated by injury problems in the build-up to this game. That is combined with a raft of players that have been called up to Stephen Kenny's senior side.

Gavin Bazunu, Troy Parrott, Michael Obafemi, Nathan Collins, Adam Idah and Jason Knight are all still eligible to play but have long moved on to pastures new.

Gavin Kilkenny, Oisin McEntee, Joel Bagan, Mark McGuinness, Luca Connell, David Harrington and Liam Kerrigan all miss out through injury.

Goalkeeper Brian Maher, centre-back Jake O'Brien, full-back Andy Lyons, captain Conor Coventry, midfielders Ross Tierney and Tyreik Wright, and centre-forward JJ Kayode remain from the team that started the campaign with a win in Bosnia.

Evan Ferguson, Will Smallbone and skipper Coventry have impressed over the campaign, but Crawford believes it's only a matter of time before they make their impact on the senior squad.

"I think it is a matter of time," said Crawford.

"Now, I am not so sure, although Stephen [Kenny] has asked about certain players - he has asked to keep it private - but there are players who are definitely on his radar and that might be a case in November, where we've no games and it might be an opportunity to experiment with certain players with the friendlies [against Norway and Malta] that were just announced.

"But with the group that got us this far I was confident we would keep the names you said there, be it Will Smallbone, Conor Coventry, Evan Ferguson."

If Ireland are to get past Israel and qualify for next summer's tournament