Treaty face Cats, Clare take on Tipp in semi-finals
O’Shea restores feelgood factor to Irish football
HOLDERS Limerick will face Kilkenny in the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 semi-finals next weekend in what is a box-office repeat of last year’s League and All-Ireland deciders.
John Kiely’s side emerged victorious on both occasions and will be aiming to keep that winning streak intact. A battling draw with 14 players against Galway squeezed the latter out of the play-offs with Tipperary taking it instead.
Clare meet Tipperary in the other semi-final in an all-Munster clash that is a warm-up to their roundrobin Munster championship clash in late April.
A hat-trick for the second week running from Alan Connolly saw Cork narrowly miss making the play-offs.
They needed Waterford to beat Kilkenny at Walsh Park and while Waterford stormed into a 2-4 to 0-6 lead in the first half with goals from Patrick Curran and Dessie Hutchinson, Eoin Cody and TJ Reid did the main scoring damage for the visitors to seal the win and their place in the semi-finals.
Division 1A for next season then is confirmed. Clare topped Division 1A and take one of the three automatic spots, along with Kilkenny and Cork. Limerick, Tipperary and Galway qualify from Division 1B while Wexford are the seventh team by virtue of being the best fourth placed finisher across the two groups.
Offaly were within minutes yesterday of victory over an experimental Clare side, having led from the front all afternoon at Birr.
Clare though produced a big finish to steal victory right at the death with a late David Reidy score.
Cork have certainly gone up the gears in recent weeks, inflicting a first defeat on Wexford after ramming five goals past Offaly the previous week. Connolly was the star of the show again in the 3-21 to 1-15 victory.
A Jake Morris goal set Tipperary on their way to a 2-21 to 0-12 win over Antrim at Corrigan Park, while Dublin rounded off their campaign with a 2-22 to 0-15 win over Westmeath.
ROMELU LUKAKU is in the Belgium squad for next Saturday’s friendly at the Aviva Stadium and may well start for the Red Devils. The veteran striker’s presence on the field may well dredge up some bad memories for the man who is acting as caretaker boss for Ireland.
It was Lukaku who opened the scoring for Belgium in their 3-0 win over Martin O’Neill’s Ireland in Bordeaux during Euro 2016. He swept home a fine finish from 20 yards after Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir inexplicably refused to award a penalty despite Shane Long nearly been decapitated by Toby Alderweireld’s foot.
‘We should have had a penalty! Longy got kicked in the head!’ O’Shea declared on Thursday afternoon, as he recalled that match. O’Shea formed a central defensive partnership that was under the cosh for much of that second-half and when O’Neill freshened things up for the third group game against Italy, O’Shea was dropped. It was the first time in more than a decade that he wasn’t named in an Ireland team if he was fit.
‘That’s what happens in management and tournament football,’ the interim Ireland boss said of that time. ‘We needed to get a win. It wasn’t nice, of course it wasn’t. I had played every game for the previous 11 years, but you know that this is going to happen at some stage.’
Given O’Neill’s penchant for only telling the players who was in the team an hour before kick-off, it’s likely that O’Shea didn’t know he was on the bench in Lille until relatively late in the day.
‘I’m trying to remember, normally with Martin, he’d like to spring a little surprise to get the impact. There was just a team callout and away you go. Obviously one or two lads had heard little things. Everyone had their own style.’
The intriguing thing about these two friendlies is getting a glimpse of O’Shea’s style as manager. According to FAI Director of Football Marc Canham, it is not an audition for the permanent job, with the next head coach due be in unveiled in early April.
However, it will be interesting to see what O’Shea – and his coaching team of Paddy McCarthy, Glenn Whelan and Brian Kerr – can bring to a group of Irish players who probably need an injection of confidence following a disappointing Euro 2024 campaign.
Having spent the majority of his career playing under one of the greatest ever managers at Old Trafford, O’Shea was asked what aspects of Alex Ferguson’s style he will try to replicate in the next ten days?
‘The man-management would definitely be a key part to it and the relationship that you build with a player, that would be the key one for me, the connection he could get with players from all over the world, to get them to really do all they could, to sacrifice and do the best for the team.’
If O’Shea is able to mimic Ferguson’s ability to get the most out of his players, he might have a successful interim spell. He was asked again on Thursday if he had any ambitions for the gig full-time in the futuramd he kicked for touch with that question.
‘Hopefully, I can bring to the team a passion and understanding of how to win football matches. I want to make sure everyone understands what it means when you’re in the squad first and foremost, when the team is named and how you support and how you understand to be successful in that unit. And to make sure everyone enjoys it but that everyone is in it together, knowing we can get two wins against Belgium and Switzerland.’ While O’Shea is still a young coach, he has already built up a wealth of experience, from Reading to Ireland U21s and graduating to Stephen Kenny’s staff up to being part of Wayne Rooney’s backroom during the ill-fated stint at Birmingham.
‘It was the best education I had. We went in there and there was talk of it being a plan and a project, and that we were going to get time. But it didn’t work out.’
And it will be interesting to see what kind of manager John O’Shea will be in this spell. He made all the right moves, calling the likes of Sammie Szmodics and Jake O’Brien into the squad.
The same issues still remain, especially a lightweight feel to the base of the Irish midfield.
But O’Shea has ensured that these two friendlies will be watched with interest.
‘IT’S ENSURING EVERYONE ENJOYS IT... AND IS IN IT TOGETHER’