Mcclean keeps Irish dreams alive

Mcclean the hero for Ireland as he slays Dragons’ hopes and fires O’neill’s men to verge of World Cup

THOSE tuning in with no dog in the fight must have been praying for a late Wales equaliser that would have eliminated both sides from the World Cup mix.

One for the football purists and hipsters it wasn’t and neutrals everywhere may be horrified at the prospect of Ireland, in particular, gracing the biggest stage in Russia next summer after a batten down the hatches performance like this.

It was an atrocious game of football but Martin O’neill has a knack of getting the big results when he needs them most and this was another of those nights.

Results in other groups had gone Ireland’s way in recent days and the signs of a shift in momentum were there. James Mcclean reclaimed his mantle of talisman just before the hour mark after drilling his his fourth goal of the ampaign. All of them have come on the road, all of them match-winning interventions.

But while the West Brom winger will get the headlines, Ireland’s defenders were the real heroes.

In an extraordinary closing 10 minutes, with an increasingly desperate Welsh side now needing two goals, they were bombarded from all angles.

But led by warhorse Shane Duffy and captain fantastic David Meyler – just in front of the back four – they restricted the Euro 2016 semi-finalists to shots from outside the box for the most part and bravely held out, surviving five agonising minutes of injury-time,

Shane Long’s absence through injury was a bigger blow than we realised.

He cannot hit a barndoor for club or country and it’s now 24 games with a goal. But his pace and energy would have given Ireland an out during the first-half.

The direct - and often aimless - approach was entirely predictable, of course, but 34-year-old Daryl Murphy has no pace whatsoever and those booming punts forward from the defence rarely found a white shirt and the hosts were handed possession on a plate.

Joe Allen was their orchestrator in chief but was forced off eight minutes before the break with an apparent concussion.

And his loss was keenly felt by the home side who had earlier gone close from a Hal Robson-kanu header and an Aaron Ramsey shot tipped over the bar. Wales were poor, but Ireland were awful. And yet O’neill’s charges finished the half with their tails up.

There was nothing pretty about it – and even that’s being kind – but the momentum shift was noticeable and then copperfastened by Mcclean’s clinical shot to the net right in front of the 3,500 travelling fans who just lost it.

Wayne Hennessey casually rolled a ball to Ashley Williams but the Wales skipper (left) was dispossesed by Jeff Hendrick who then scampered up the right flank and slipped a low cross into the box.

Harry Arter’s brilliant step over bamboozled the defence and Mcclean did the rest.

Now it was over to the Irish defence to step up to the plate. Wales reacted by springing wonderkid Ben Woodburn into the mix as news filtered through from Belgrade that Serbia had finally taken the lead against Georgia, therefore killing giddy talk of topping the group.

Ireland had a major job on their hands just to see out this game, never mind the rest of it.

And what an excruciating closing 15 minutes as the broken hosts – by now a draw was no use to them – tried to rally by peppering Darren Randolph’s penalty box.

But Duffy, Meyler et all were Dragon slayers.