Ireland midfielder Glenn Whelan has spoken of his pride at becoming Stoke City's most-capped international player.
Dublin born Whelan won his 37th cap against the Czech Republic on 29 February and that surpassed the 36 appearances made by England goalkeeper Gordon Banks during his five-year spell with the Potters.
"To beat Gordon Banks, who's not just a Stoke legend but also an England legend, it will be great to look back on," Whelan told BBC Radio Stoke.
Banks won a total of 73 caps for England, with the other 37 coming before his move from Leicester City to Stoke in 1967.
28 year old Whelan made his international debut for Ireland in June 2008, five months after joining the Potters from Sheffield Wednesday. The Irish central midfielder started his career with Manchester City after joining from Irish feeder club Cherry Orchard in 2001.
Whelan has been a mainstay in Giovanni Trapattoni's central midfield and is a likely starter for 'The Boys In Green' when they travel to Euro 2012 in June.
Three days after playing in a 1-1 draw for the Irish against the Czechs, Whelan helped Stoke to a 1-0 win against Norwich , their second consecutive Premier League victory and a result that lifted Tony Pulis's side back into the top half of the Premiership table.
"Coming off four straight defeats, we knew it was going to be really tough but they were two games that we knew we could win," said Whelan.
"It's given us massive confidence going into the next game [at Chelsea on Saturday].
"Clean sheets are important, every team needs them, and we've got two of them in the last two games so we need to keep that up."
"We go into every game hoping to get a win and Chelsea is no different. We know it will be tough with the players that they've got but they're not unbeatable. We can go there with confidence, like what we've shown in the last two games."
Irish central midfielder Glenn Whelan is confident that ' The Boys In Green ' will qualify for Euro 2012 and that the team will use the play-off defeat to France two year's ago as motivation for the two-legged encounter with Estonia.
Ireland travel to Tallinn for Friday's play-off first leg clash against Estonia, before next Tuesday's return fixture at Lansdowne Road, with a place at the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine up for grabs.
Whelan said that the players did not want to experience the losing feeling that the Irish team experienced in Paris after the infamous Thierry Henry hand-ball incident, which prevented Giovanni Trapattoni's side from progressing to last year's World Cup in South Africa.
Whelan said: "The lads that were involved know the feeling of that final whistle in France when we got beaten, and nobody wants to have that feeling again.
"So we can use that as motivation going into both games against Estonia and change things around after the last time and hopefully qualify, which will give everybody a big lift."
The Stoke City midfielder also gave an insight into his role with the Ireland team compared to the more advanced position that he plays for his club.
Whelan, who at club level is well known for linking up with the Stoke strikers and consistently peppering opponents' goals with long-range shooting, admitted that he would like more opportunities to play a similar role when wearing the green jersey.
But the Dubliner emphasised that his main concern is to do the job asked of him from Trapattoni and that he had no problems playing any role asked of him.
Whelan added: "The manager wants to keep a clean sheet, not concede goals and has got a defensive mind."But you go out and you're told by the manager what to do and if you don't do that, there are other players waiting to come in.
"I think every player would like to get a little more forward and adventurous but if the manager wants you to do a role then you have to do it."
Ireland Manager Giovanni Trapattoni will field an experienced Ireland side in tonight’s friendly against Paraguay despite a number of withdrawals.
Shay Given, Richard Dunne, Aiden McGeady and Kevin Kilbane are missing but Robbie Keane, Damien Duff, John O'Shea and Kevin Doyle will all start.
Regulars Glenn Whelan, Keith Andrews, Sean St Ledger are also included as is Fulham defender Stephen Kelly.
With Given missing, Coventry keeper Keiren Westwood will start in goal. The twenty-five-year-old will win his fourth cap as he deputises for the injured Given and has been praised by boss Giovanni Trapattoni.
Trapattoni said: “Westwood is a goalkeeper with a great personality. Physically, he is fantastic.
“He has personality and a presence that I like very much, and I don’t think he will be fazed by the game.”
Wolves striker Doyle missed training on Sunday because of a sore throat but has been passed fit to play.
Tuesday's game and Friday's contest at the RDS against Algeria will be part of the squad's preparations for the European Championship qualifiers which start in early September with the away trip to Armenia.
Ireland central midfielder Glenn Whelan has signed a new four-year contract with Stoke City.
The Dublin born player joined the Potters in January 2008 from Sheffield Wednesday for £500,000.
"I'm obviously delighted, once we got it all sorted, it was just a case of getting it signed and I'm really happy."
The 25-year-old, who has won 10 caps for Ireland, has made 50 appearances for the Potters.
"Talks have been going on for a while, but with the transfer window going on I think they were more concerned with bringing new players in and then they would deal with me afterwards, but I'm happy it's all done now."
The former Manchester City trainee helped Stoke win promotion from the Championship in 2007/08, but found it difficult to hold down a regular first-team place in their first season in the top flight.
However, a last-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw at Aston Villa in March brought him back into manager Tony Pulis' plans, and he is now a regular in the starting line-up.
Whelan has also played an important role for Trapattoni's Ireland as they continue their campaign to book a place in next years World Cup finals in South Africa.
"I've been working very hard in the last 12 months to get into the team and I think the reward of a new contract has come from that," added Whelan
Stoke City’s Ireland midfielder Glenn Whelan is backing his international team-mate Stephen Kelly to make an impact at the Britannia Stadium.
Kelly joined City on loan from Birmingham at the end of January, but hasn’t played since making his debut in the 2-0 defeat at Sunderland on February 7.
Both Kelly and club captain Andy Griffin have been kept out of the side by the impressive form of Andy Wilkinson at right-back.
But Whelan, who has known Kelly since their days playing youth football in Dublin, says the former Tottenham defender will let no one down if called upon.
He added: “I am sure once he is given the chance, Stoke fans will see what he can do.
“He’s a very good defender, but probably more of an attacking right-back. I am sure he will do very well.”
Whelan is hoping to take a huge step closer to Premier League survival, and the World Cup finals, over the next 17 days after he and Kelly were picked in the Republic of Ireland squad for the games at home to Bulgaria on March 28 and away to Italy on April 1.
Those games are sandwiched by Stoke’s home game with second-bottom Middlesbrough at the Britannia on Saturday and their trip to basement club West Brom on April 4.
Whelan intends to head to Ireland with Stoke out of the bottom three... and believes
City have an advantage over Gareth Southgate’s Middlesbrough.
He said: “They have been in the Premier League for a long time and maybe nobody expected them to be down there at the start of the season.
“They are under a lot more pressure than us because everyone expected us to go straight back down.
“But it will be a tough game. They will be fighting for their lives, and so will we.”
Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni picked Whelan when the midfielder couldn’t get into the Stoke side in the first half of the season.
Whelan believes that helped him win his place back at Stoke, but doesn’t believe he could stay in the Ireland side in the long term unless he was also playing well for his club.
He said: “He (Trapattoni) has seen something in me and hopefully I have been putting performances in.
“The more games you play, the better you feel in terms of confidence and also match fitness. That helped me because, at the start of the season, I wasn’t playing as many games as I would have liked to at Stoke.
“But if I am not playing well for Stoke then I don’t think I have a chance with Ireland.”
Stoke manager Tony Pulis will not loan out any more of his players before the transfer window opens in January.
Pulis knows there is plenty of interest in several of his personnel and, with defender Lewis Buxton loaned to Sheffield Wednesday last week, there has been speculation over the future of midfielder Glenn Whelan in particular.
Whelan has not featured in the Barclays Premier League since Stoke's opening-day defeat at Bolton but Pulis said: "Glenn is going nowhere and neither is anyone else who is in our first-team squad."
He added: "Glenn has been to see me and I've told him his chance will come around again. It will then be up to him to take that chance.
"We are going to need all the players at some stage and some of them will have to be patient.
"Having a big squad and players who are unhappy at not playing is a new experience for me, but one that I was always going to come up against.
"I can see both sides of the coin because I was a player myself many moons ago. No-one was more unhappy than me if I was ever left out."When questioned over a possible move away from Stoke City Whelan said:
“If I don’t get back in the Stoke team,” he says, “I don’t think I will have a chance in the international team because the Ireland manager will be looking for match-fit players.
“There’s a big gap now and if I don’t play a lot of games between now and the next international in February, then that will affect me.”
Not that he is pitching for a move in the January transfer window, he insists, merely setting himself a personal target to regain that coveted club spot sooner rather than later.
“Ask any player and they will tell you they want to play every game they possibly can,” said Whelan. “It hasn’t happened for me, but I’ve been working hard in training and hopefully I can impress the manager. At the end of the day he can only pick 11 now that we have a bigger and better squad.
“I think I’m more than capable of getting back into the team and I just have to make sure that when February comes around I’m back playing here. It’s going to be tough, but I think I’m capable.”
