Oisin Smyth’s Gaelic skills put him in the spotlight at Oxford United

Oisin Smyth took over as Oxford United's goalkeeper for the closing stages of their clash with AFC Wimbledon

Former Dungannon Swifts midfielder Oisin Smyth has enjoyed first-team minutes with Oxford United

Oisin Smyth has high hopes for what his former Dungannon team-mate Ethan McGee can achieve at Linfield

Oisin Smyth’s Gaelic skills were called into action as the former Dungannon Swifts midfielder was asked to don goalkeeping gloves.

The 23-year-old Oxford United player was seeing out the last few minutes of a Football League Trophy Cup tie against AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday night.

Wimbledon were 2-0 up when Oxford keeper Simon Eastwood was sent off in the 89th minute, leaving manager Des Buckingham with a problem.

He had already used all of his five substitutes so was unable to bring on backup keeper Ed McGinty.

But McGinty, who represented the Republic of Ireland at underage level and spent a year with Sligo Rovers, knew Smyth was a former Gaelic player and tipped Buckingham off.

“Yeah, it was the Gaelic connection that saw me end up in goals,” a smiling Smyth told Sunday Life Sport.

“We had used all five of our substitutes in the tie, so when Simon got sent off, the manager had some thinking to do.

“Our backup keeper Ed knew I had played Gaelic when I was younger and told the manager I was the right man for the job!

“In England, they see Gaelic players using their hands and think that will help them in nets.

“I was happy enough, and in fairness, it was only for five minutes or so and I didn’t have that much to do, Wimbledon were winning and weren’t pressing too hard.

“But that didn’t stop their fans giving me stick.

“When they saw me going into nets, they urged Wimbledon to shoot at every opportunity – they were even