Squad Profiles - Senior

WHEN Ivan Sproule ran onto the Ibrox pitch on August 27, 2005 as a 63rd minute substitute for Hibs team-mate Gary O'Connor no-one could have anticipated the impact the next half-an-hour or so would have on his career.

The game with Scottish champions Rangers was scoreless. At the final whistle, however, Hibs were three goals to the good - every one of them courtesy of Sproule.

Ivan joined the Edinburgh outfit in January 2005 from Institute but up until his Ibrox date with destiny had only found the net once, had struggled to hold down a starting role and was strongly considering a move back to the Irish League.

However, his superb hat-trick demonstrated sensationally what he was capable of ...... so much so that Lawrie Sanchez drafted him into the Northern Ireland squad ahead of the Azerbaijan and England double-header.

He finally got his chance to take the field in the closing moments of the victory over England in September 2005 to complete an amazing fortnight for the unassuming Castlederg lad who would have been at the game anyway as a supporter.

Indeed, Sanchez stated after the game he would liked to have given Ivan a bigger role so you can safely assume that defences will be torn apart by his electrifying pace for some time to come.

In March last year he marked his full debut for Northern Ireland by scoring the only goal in the friendly game against Estonia at Windsor Park - a goal which was scored after just 77 seconds.

In June 2007 Sproule joined Championship side Bristol City on a three year deal.