Is josh spice simply a Interim boss could hand FAI a dilemma tomorrow

TOP MARKS: John o’shea has impressed as interim boss over the past week

AT five o’clock on Saturday evening John o’shea’s job interview began.

Normal protocols were swatted aside. There wasn’t anyone from personnel asking questions. Instead it was a winger called Jeremy Doku and a goalkeeper called Matz Sels.

Each asked about O’shea’s character and tactical acumen. Can you hold your nerve? Can your team hold its shape? Neither man cared about his past, the league titles and European Cup that O’shea won with Manchester united.

Aside from the footballing snobs who prefer their Irish international manager to be a good old boy rather than a League of Ireland graduate, noone was advocating O’shea for the top job up until recently.

But in football, like life, possession is nine-tenths of the law. Remember that David O’leary started out as a caretaker at Leeds and ended up taking them to a Champions League semi-final.

garry.doyle@reachplc.com

Then there is Gareth Southgate, who like O’shea, was initially appointed on a temporary basis.

Can something similar happen with Ireland now?

Potentially so, because all it takes for this arranged courtship to evolve into a long-term relationship is another good performance against Switzerland and then for the FAI’S preferred candidate to get cold feet, like Lee Carsley seemingly did before Christmas.

Early

That’s why Saturday’s match ceased to be a friendly international and instead turned into a formal meeting to figure out if O’shea was a suitable long-term candidate.

The truth is it’s too early to say. We do know international management isn’t easy. You can’t shop for players. Nor can you alter the country’s footballing structures.

Dawn of A new ERA: Ireland’s players line up for the national anthem prior to Saturday’s friendly encounter with Belgium at the Aviva

That leaves you needing to get three things right. Pick the right team, build morale and be tactically sound.

O’shea got top marks in all three questions.

all his big calls — Kelleher ahead of Bazunu; Coleman instead of Doherty; three at the back rather than four; Robbie Brady’s return — were vindicated.

If he got one thing wrong, you could make a case for Mikey Johnston starting rather than Sammie Szmodics, given the balance he provides on the wing.

Yet Szmodics did reasonably well on his debut, creating one early chance, nearly scoring with another.

Add in the clever timing and choice of O’shea’s substitutions and it’s no exaggeration to say the interim manager bolstered his case for getting this gig on a long-term basis.

Still, caution is advised. Opening nights have never been an accurate test for what’s to come with Ireland managers. Jack Charlton, remember, lost his first game.

Legacy

As we all know, his legacy became Stuttgart, Genoa and New Jersey, two World Cups and a European Championships, not a 1-0 defeat to Wales on a wet Wednesday afternoon.

Then, on the flip side, there was the excitable fuss that surrounded Steve Staunton’s opening night win over Sweden in 2006, again in a friendly.

Six months later Cyprus beat Ireland 5-2. A year after that the Cypriots held Ireland to a draw at Croke Park and he was sacked.