O’Neill: It’s time for players to stand up
MARTIN O’NEILL is braced for an anxious evening at Aviva Stadium on Friday week when the Republic of Ireland must maul Moldova to stay in the World Cup frame. ‘It will be a nervy 90 minutes, we’ve seen this before in games we’re hoping to win,’ predicted the Ireland manager yesterday. ‘We want to go to Wales with everything to play for so this game has become ultra-important for us. It’s the last game at home at this stage of the competition, at the minute. ‘I think the Moldova game is everything to us.’ O’Neill, who is set to include uncapped strikers Sean Maguire and Scott Hogan in his squad today, has called on his players to ‘rise to the occasion’ as they seek a six-point haul from their final Group D games. ‘In the previous competition (Euro 2016) we got off to a reasonable start then stuttered during the middle but came very, very strong in the last part of the competition and that got us through. ‘This time we got off to a really fine start, have had a hiccup, and we have to rise to the occasion again. This is it,’ he stressed. The Derry native pointed out how he has had to juggle an ageing squad with the integration of younger players. ‘If I had taken up the mantle here almost four years ago and [FAI chief executive] John Delaney had said to me, “what we want is that in four years’ time we have a young side that is vibrant and ready to go, so don’t worry about qualification”, I think we could have done that quite easily,’ he said. ‘Some of the old guard, who have been really fine players for the national side, we could easily have said “lads, time is up, we are going with this youth policy”. ‘But we still wanted to qualify for competitions and some of the old guard said to me “that’s fine, I still want to play but if someone comes along who is younger and better than me, I will push to the side, or be pushed to the side.” ‘What’s happened is that some of the older players have stuck with it, and been excellent for us.’ O’Neill didn’t mention names but his squad today will include the likes of John O’Shea (36), Wes Hoolahan (35) Daryl Murphy (34), Jon Walters (34), Glenn Whelan (33) and Stephen Ward (32), who could be headed for international retirement if Ireland don’t qualify. Whether O’Neill will be on board for another term as manager remains to be seen, but either way he expects the squad to undergo a major overhaul. ‘I think in the next year or so, regardless even of going on to the next Euros, maybe some other young players will come through and we will have a group of players that, when the old guard finally leave, as they will do, that can go on and maybe even surpass them.’ Chris Coleman will announce his Wales squad for their final two qualifiers away to Georgia on October 6 and home to Ireland on October 9 on Thursday.