Sean Scannell will put his Premier League dream on hold as he seeks to impress on his Republic of Ireland Under-21s debut against Montenegro.The Crystal Palace striker was the Eagles' water boy only a few short months ago, but he has not looked back since Neil Warnock took a chance on the 17-year-old and offered him a professional contract.

His impact has been so great that Palace owner Simon Jordan has slapped a £3million price-tag on the youngster and clubs such as Manchester City and Aston Villa are said to be interested.

"At the start of the season I was doing water bottles, that was my job," explained Scannell, whose father hails from Armagh.

"Then when Neil Warnock became manager he came up to me and was talking about a game I played with the reserves and he told me that I didn't play too well, but he liked my speed.

"When he found out I didn't have a game the next day, he said I might as well travel with the first-team squad and from then on I've just been with them.

"I was on the bus against Colchester and Preston and then he brought me on against QPR. A couple of games after that I scored my first goal against Sheffield Wednesday."

Scannell's performances have not gone unnoticed by Don Givens either, and the under-21 coach promoted him from the under-19 squad last week ahead of Tuesday night's game.

"I don't really know what's going to come out of this," said Scannell. "I just have to hope for the best. It's just about the experience now. I've got to get to know everyone and hopefully I can come over a lot more.

"I was meant to go away with the under-19s, who are playing France, but the lads at Palace told me there had been a change of plan and I was going with the 21s, so it was a big shock."

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