« MARK GALLAGHER ON THE NEW ERA
THE big talking point of Stephen Kenny’s first team selection wasn’t all that contentious, at least according to Phil Babb in the Sky Sports studio. ‘Seamus [Coleman] has been a great servant, but I do think Matt Doherty deserves his chance,’ he said.
In a different world, we would have had forensic analysis of Kenny’s first side, where he got it right and wrong. But Ireland have to share Sky’s Nations League stage with Wales, so much of the pre-match discussion centred on who Ryan Giggs had picked, and the rabbit he pulled from his hat in Dylan Levitt.
James Collins wasn’t too worried about a brave new era being ushered in for Irish football. And Sky felt that most of their viewers weren’t, either. Nobody seemed to understand the magnitude of this match for Irish football.
Perhaps, the only person in Sky’s coverage who knew the significance was the co-commentator. Somehow, the broadcaster had convinced Mick McCarthy to discuss his successor’s first match. It might have got a little awkward had Kenny’s tenure got off to a flying start.
Within the opening seven minutes, a reflective McCarthy had recalled how his side had beaten Bulgaria 3-1 in a friendly as well as the ‘horrible’ opening game he endured in Gibraltar. Fair enough bringing up the past, but last night was supposed to be about the future.
As McCarthy pointed out more than once, ‘the Bulgarians don’t want to defend’. And there were panic stations any time the ball was in their box. But there wasn’t enough panic caused.
Ireland played some nice football in the first-half, but there was the age-old problem of putting the ball in the net.
Still, there were plenty of encouraging signs for Babb to chew over at half-time. Except in keeping with the feeling that this significant match for Ireland was an after-thought for the broadcaster, it was left to McCarthy and Rob Hawthorne to dissect the action they already called. It all felt a little shoddy.
McCarthy tried his best to act as the company man, insisting that this game was nothing more than a trial for the likes of Adam Idah and Aaron Connolly. ‘It’s a chance to look at some players, try them… it is tough for them, if Idah and Connolly had four or five games of a new season under their belt, it might be better for them.’
The sense that this was little more than a pre-season friendly continued as McCarthy was asked if he ever saw a potential coach in Damien Duff?
It allowed Mick to wax lyrical about Duffer, the world-class player, who starred in the 2002
World Cup while on the pitch, the action slowed.
Ireland were the better team, which made the sucker-punch of Bulgaria’s goal all the harder to take. Duffy wasn’t having his best game before he allowed Bozhidar Kraev to get in between himself and John Egan. It was a lovely finish, but it was a goal that should never have happened.
McCarthy remained positive, even after Bulgaria’s goal. He still believed Ireland would score and Aaron Conolly’s dangerous low cross, which eluded a couple of Irish players, backed up his point.
But goals are an eternal problem for Ireland. With less than 20 minutes left, Shane Long appeared for Idah, allowing Mick to explain why we never saw the Southampton striker during his tenure. He was always injured, apparently, which wasn’t exactly true.
Long offered more of a threat with his direct running, but the game was petering out to such an extent that even McCarthy’s optimism had faded.
‘This is awful now, 84 minutes gone, they want to keep the ball and you want to go press it and you don’t have the legs to press it,’ the former manager explained striking his first downbeat note of the evening.
‘You just need something to stop the game drifting away.’
Drifting away it was, though. A defeat looked almost inevitable on Kenny’s first outing as manager, despite some of the fine passages of play.
But we hadn’t reckoned on Duffy’s Captain Fantastic act from corners.
It hadn’t been the Celtic new boy’s most comfortable evening in a green shirt but he popped up to salvage a draw at the death.
And so Irish football’s brave new era begins with Ireland’s default result. 1-1.
However, there were promising signs that this will be something different. The team were trying to knock the ball around. They dominated possession.
As McCarthy said of his successor: ‘It has been a good start for him.’
And it had. Ireland didn’t get the win they probably didn’t deserve, but there was enough in the performance to suggest there might, at least, be more panache to their football under the new manager.
‘The coverage felt a little shoddy’