SOMETHING TO WORK WITH
Late lapse tough to take but O’Neill sees plenty of positives
FOR a long time in sleepy Silesia, this dull duel was crying out for Roy Keane to have a cut at an Irish player, the referee, the fourth official. Anyone.
And then, something improbable happened — Ireland scored through Aiden O’Brien, on his debut too, which prompted Keane to get to his feet and applaud politely.
As for O’Brien, the Millwall striker appeared stunned after his neat near-post header in the 53rd minute rocked the Poles.
There was almost 40 minutes to play and for most of them Ireland were secure but just when an uplifting win was on the cards there was a late glitch or rather a Klich, when the Polish substitute of that name waltzed through the Irish midfield to score in the 87th minute.
Fingers were pointed and Irish skipper Richard Keogh was clearly incensed as the team had put in a decent collective shift up to then without any major scares.
To cough up the lead clearly stung but on balance manager Martin O’Neill can draw a number of positives from a performance which helped erase, to a degree, the wretched night in Wales last week.
O’Neill made six changes, most of them enforced through injury.
With eight players from the Championship and three from the Premier League, one of whom hasn’t played this season, this was arguably the weakest selection by O’Neill in 51 games as manager.
And yet, they didn’t play like it. There was plenty of heart, and hope for the future too, as they turned things around from the calamity of Cardiff.
However, no one should get too carried away. For this was a friendly, no more. Far stiffer tests lie ahead, starting with the Nations League double-header against Denmark and Wales next month.
For that, O’Neill may well select a team with seven or eight changes from last night but at least he knows he has back-up boys who may yet emerge from the shadows.
One of them is O’Brien who became the 10th new player to be capped this year, while Enda Stevens and Shaun Williams started for the first time in O’Neill’s patched-up team, and delivered too.
For a team on the crest of a slump, it wasn’t exactly an XI you’d put your money on to restore credibility. And yet, that’s exactly what they did.
Unlike the fatal dashes of derringdo against Denmark and Wales which left Ireland exposed, there was caution and care aplenty, and some decent football at times too.
The 3-5-2 system may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it worked for O’Neill as it brought stability to a defence built on quick-sands in Cardiff.
The Poles were unable to plot a way through and there was a sense of restlessness among the 25,455 attendance in the first half.
A barometer of boredom is always the first rendition of the irritating ‘Mexican Wave’.
Last night, it rang around the Municipal Stadium in the 25th minute and O’Neill couldn’t have been happier to hear it.
For his makeshift team were doing what he demanded of them, and continued to do so, until that late lapse of concentration presented the Poles with a goal.
There was much to admire in Cyrus Christie who has displayed versatility which O’Neill can turn to, while Callum O’Dowda offered glimpses of his potential.
Up front, O’Brien ran selflessly into channels, showed a neat first touch and managed a shot on goal in the first half which worried Wojciech Szczesny in the Polish goal. For a lad from Millwall to come from left-field with no international experience at all, this was a debut of grit and perseverance.
And he crowned it all with a goal early in the second half when Ireland scored from a corner. It followed a barnstorming run from Christie down the inside rightchannel which yielded a corner
Taken short, Jeff Hendrick worked the ball to Keogh, who rolled it back for O’Dowda in space. He created room for a cross and the in-swinging left-footed delivery was posted into the corridor of uncertainty between the Polish defenders and Szczesny.
Into this space, ghosted O’Brien to score with a header with a clinical efficiency of which Frank Stapleton or Kevin Doyle would have approved.
Ireland are generally decent enough at holding on to a lead and there were no scares until they dropped their guard late on, by which time O’Neill had called Williams and Hendrick ashore.
From nowhere, Mateusz Klich found space 20 yards from the Irish box in a central position. The Leeds United midfielder worked a onetwo with Arkadiusz Milik, surged into the box and slipped the ball to Randolph’s left.
It was the sort of sloppy concession which would have enraged Keane as a player, and one which rarely happened on his watch.