O’BRIEN GOAL GIVES IRELAND NEW HOPE

THE football was never going to be as captivating and explosive as the build-up, but Martin O’Neill will settle for dour and disciplined and the rediscovery of an identity which sees Republic of Ireland at least look competitive in matches. The manager needed this after a week in which his No 2 Roy Keane again made headlines for the wrong reasons following the leaked WhatsApp voice message of defender Stephen Ward detailing the assistant’s expletive-laden rows with Harry Arter and Jon Walters. Former Ireland captain Liam Brady has called for Keane to be sacked but O’Neill gave a passionate defence of his righthand man on the eve of the game. In fact, it was the best performance we’ve seen from anyone connected to this Ireland team in a long time. ‘The players have responded brilliantly and we needed a

performance like this,’ said O’Neill after the game. ‘We’ll take a great deal of confidence from this.’ It is approaching five years since O’Neill took charge but this starting line-up was undoubtedly the weakest he has fielded and included just three Premier League players. But they were in front on 53 minutes when Millwall forward and Ireland debutant Aiden O’Brien met Callum O’Dowda’s inviting centre and glanced beyond Wojciech Szczesny. Ireland were resolute until substitute Mateusz Klich strode into the area and tucked home three minutes from time.