Lack of creativity costs Boys in Green

IT’S hard not to be upbeat after a night like that. The Lansdowne Roar was back. The buzz was back. The connection between the team and the terraces, each feeding off the other, back. That mixture of hope and desperation, fear and belonging driving the boys in green onwards, back. The football wasn’t bad either. It was easily the best Ireland have played since Mick McCarthy’s return to the Ireland fold at the beginning of this qualification process. Ireland controlled more of the ball, set the tempo and the agenda.

At the end of it all though there was that familiar failing. Ireland just don’t create enough. Yes there were a couple of chances before the Irish finally made the breakthrough – Conor Hourihane’s weak effort on thirty five minutes and Alan Browne’s speculative drive from distance shortly thereafter for instance – too often though the chances were of the half variety.

Almost there and not quite. The final ball, pass or flick just not quite coming off and with it the chance dying before coming anywhere near fruition. This shouldn’t be a huge surprise to anyone. Over the eight qualifying games Ireland managed just seven goals, less than a goal a game. No team can expect to qualify with a record like that (remembering of course that Gibraltar were in the group).

McCarthy has made Ireland hard to beat – something they’d ceased to be by the end of the O’Neill tenure – the importance of which shouldn’t be discounted, but Monday night was the time to try and move the thing on from that. With a play-off guaranteed before a ball was kicked in anger in Lansdowne Road, Ireland had nothing to lose and everything to gain. It was the night to go for broke to go with a creative force like Jack Byrne, to go with Troy Parrott, to throw something – or somebody more specifically – at the Danes they weren’t expecting. Denmark almost certainly deserve to qualify directly ahead of Ireland. It still feels a chance missed.