Irish stall but trudge to ugly win
iT iS just as well manager Mick McCarthy said he would not mind a ‘scrappy 1-0 win’, for this was ugly even by ireland’s unsightly standards.
That they emerged with a 2- 0 victory thanks to Robbie Brady’s header in added time was entirely unjust, for that scoreline suggests a degree of comfort and competence.
But this was far from easy, especially on the eye. McCarthy will argue that very few will remember the aesthetics of a result which puts them five points clear at the top of euro 2020 qualifying Group D. You would imagine very few would want to remember.
That, however, has long since been the way with ireland, and if they are to make it to the tournament, they are likely to scrape there by whatever means necessary, much like the manner in which they arrived here late after an engine failure on the team bus.
McCarthy said: ‘Am i happy with the performance? Not really. We’ve had about 30 shots and couldn’t score. But we got two and they didn’t get any. That’s 10 points in my pocket.
‘The players seemed a bit sad and i’m like, “Come on lads”. We ought to be better, yes, but it’s not easy against a belligerent team.’
Of the bus breaking down, he added: ‘A woman pushing a pram went past us at one stage, but it didn’t affect us, no excuses.’
McCarthy had not been best pleased with the group opener in Gibraltar, either. ‘That was horrible and i did not enjoy a single minute of it,’ he moaned after a 1-0 win in March.
it would have been no crime had Gibraltar’s policemen and customs officials nicked a point on that occasion. The mitigating factors, argued McCarthy and his players, were the howling gales and artificial pitch.
But even on a sun-kissed evening on the grass in Dublin this ireland team made heavy weather of opponents ranked 195th in the world. The opening 25 minutes were memorable only for a comical free-kick routine that saw Shane Duffy, acting as a decoy in the Gibraltar defensive wall, knocked off his feet when team- mate Conor hourihane fired straight at his ankles.
McCarthy had said he would be happy with ‘ a winner off somebody’s backside’. Well, the side of Joseph Chipolina’s back was the source of the opener just before the half- hour, the Gibraltar defender deflecting into his own net after David McGoldrick’s shot had seemed destined for a group of schoolchildren in the low rows — not exactly the safest place to house them given ireland’s recent waywardness in front of goal.
The youngsters had presumably been given free tickets because of 15,000 unsold seats. This performance is hardly likely to entice others to fill the gaps.