O’neill on defensive
IT’S hard to know where the Republic of Ireland can go from here, but Callum Robinson tried his best to look on the bright side after this latest low.
It wouldn’t have flattered Northern Ireland if they had headed back up the M1 with a 2-0 or 3-0 victory, and only Darren Randolph stood in the way of that happening.
This is where Ireland are now, and at least in Randolph they had a figure to rise above the mediocrity on display.
“Darren Randolph did really well and made some really good saves, he was excellent and that helped us keep a clean sheet,” said Robinson. “It’s nice to keep a clean sheet, it’s something to build on. “Hopefully now we can be brave, get on the ball and create chances and it will be okay.”
Stuart Dallas, who was one of the visitors who had a go at beating Randolph only to be denied as half-time approached, had a different take on what had unfolded.
“There was only one team trying to win that game,” said the Leeds United midfielder (inset). “If we’d won the game by two or three goals, it wouldn’t have flattered us.”
He’ll get no argument from the supporters in the south stand at Lansdowne Road, traditionally the home of the most passionate followers of the men in green.
The boos that briefly
– but loudly – rang out at the end sounded a warning that this unstructured, uneducated football can’t continue with the Euro 2020 qualifiers in view.
Yet Preston livewire Robinson, who has been a bright spark during a difficult time since his arrival onto the scene, claims that things can improve when Ireland make the trip to Aarhus over the weekend for the final game in a fairly disastrous UEFA Nations League campaign.
After all, if results do go Ireland’s way then they could still avoid relegation to the third seeds for the Euros draw in Dublin next month.
“We will have belief after FOR Ronan Curtis at least, last night will be a night to remember. The former Derry City man, now making quick and steady progress at Portsmouth, took another career leap with a first senior cap for the Republic of Ireland.
Curtis, 22, replaced the injured Callum O’dowda at the break in the stalemate.
“It was great was to make my debut,” the 22-year-old (right) said. “I’ve been working hard for the last few months and this was my first time being called up, so I’m grateful to get my debut. I wasn’t given a clue beforehand.”
Curtis has scored six goals in 15 games at Portsmouth this term but wasn’t hopeful coming on at the Aviva.
“It didn’t look like there was much ball coming near the getting a result last year, a lot of the same players are there,” he said.
“We’ve nothing to lose, we have to be positive and we know we need a win no matter what. We’ll build on tonight and be more creative up top. “Denmark are a quality team with a load of good players. It’s going to be a tough one but we’ll stick together and hopefully get a result.
“We were disappointed not to get the win tonight.
“The only positive was a clean sheet. We thought we could have created more, been a little more positive and created a little more ourselves. So we’re quite disappointed.
“It’s hard as a striker but you still have to work hard to help the team, put a shift in off the ball and hope the chances come. Tonight not a lot came my way personally, but I still worked hard.
“We think about confidence in the dressing-room and the fact we’re not scoring goals and we’re aware of that and that feeds into the disappointment.
“We want to give the fans more going forward, but it’s another clean sheet but hopefully we can go on from there”. strikers,” he acknowledged.
“Northern Ireland is a tough game, it’s a derby game, it’s about making it stick and bringing other players into the game.
“I’m a hard-working player, once I get the ball I try and make things happen.
“The boss just said,
‘Go and enjoy it, this is your chance’ and he said afterwards,
‘Congratulations, you did well, you put yourself about’.
“We got a decent enough result, we didn’t concede, we’ve come out with a 0-0.
“Once we get one goal, confidence will start to come back into the side.
“Once we get that first win, the confidence will come and Aarhus would be ideal for it to happen.” for the supporters who paid their money. We should be doing better.
“We’re hoping in the not too distant future we can rely on someone getting a goal for us from open play, rather than a set piece.”
A frustrating night was compounded by the injury to Sean Maguire just 12 minutes after coming on.
The Preston striker has been dogged by serious hamstring injuries and suffered yet another one.
O’neill said: “That’s really unfortunate for him as he has been plagued with them recently. It’s a big blow to us, to the lad and to his club. I don’t know how serious it is at the minute.”
The Ireland boss also defended his decision to stick with the 3-5-2 shape and denied it was stifling skipper Seamus Coleman and James Mcclean.
The pair have played as wing-backs for Ireland of late and O’neill believes the team is now more solid.
“Certainly in terms of not conceding goals,” he said. “The Northern Ireland chances tonight we down to mistakes we made under no serious pressure.
“Defensively we are not conceding but we need to create more going forward.”