Walters’ hit and miss night ends well for Ireland
HE SCORED a beauty from 20 yards but missed a beast from two — Jonathan Walters will remember his first night as captain in Dublin. Thankfully for him, this dress rehearsal for next Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Austria ended in a stirring victory.
Ireland boss Martin O’Neill will take great heart from a performance which belied its setting in a post-season friendly.
Walters’s opener was cancelled out by Atletico Madrid’s Jose Gimenez but second-half goals from Cyrus Christie and James McClean did for opponents ranked 16th in the world.
McClean’s late blast will be of particular encouragement for O’Neill, for it was a carbon copy of his goal which beat Austria in Vienna in November. Do that again next weekend and they might just start scoping hotels and training bases for next summer’s finals in Russia.
O’Neill said: ‘This sets us up nicely for Austria. It has given us a confidence booster. But we’ve got to be on the front foot again and take risks because we have to try to win the game.’
Unbeaten Ireland are joint top of Group D with 11 points from five matches. Last night, however, was about making a different kind of point for those vying for competitive selection.
Some did better than others. Harry Arter will surely keep his place anchoring the midfield while right back Christie was also excellent, but the likes of Aberdeen wideman Jonny Hayes again failed to impress.
West Ham’s Darren Randolph, meanwhile, has made the goalkeeping jersey his own but he was far from convincing here. He almost gifted Edinson Cavani an early opener when casuallygoal. The passing PSG across striker his over-own stretched in attempting to steal and immediately signalled to the bench that all was not well.
On 12 minutes, the game had lost its best player, but it still had Walters. Cavani would have been proud of his 28th-minute strike, the Stoke forward sweeping into the top corner from outside the area.
Gimenez levelled 10 minutes later via his shoulder after Randolph needlessly charged from his line for a free-kick and got nowhere near the ball.
Then, one minute shy of the interval came Walters’s miss. Christie delivered to the far post and Robbie Brady returned firstion into time the with goalmouth,a left-foot where cushWalters was lurking, alone. Surely the only way he could miss was if he somehow failed to connect. Not so and, unbelievably, he found a way to lift his effort against the bar. Ireland were back in front on 51 minutes after Christie’s cross- shot rolled into the far corner, albeit fortuitously. There was nothing fortunate about Ireland’s third, however. Daryl Murphy’s through-ball gave McClean a cause to chase and he got the better of Federico Ricca before galloping in on goal and powering low into the bottom corner.