WE’RE NOT THE BUS

O’neill tells his players to ‘go for it’ in Copenhagen tonight and make it another night to savour

Schmeichel Randolph Ankersen Christie Kjaer Duffy Bjellend Clark Larsen Ward Kvist Whelan Delaney Arter Eriksen Brady Poulsen Hendrick Jorgensen Mcclean Sisto Murphy TO coin a Martin O’neill phrase, ‘this is it’.

The terrace talk, pub debates and media scrutiny of Ireland’s style of play and obvious shortcomings should matter not a jot in Copenhagen tonight. And to coin the Bee Gees, this is about staying alive.

Ireland’s play-off history in the World Cup and European Championships is littered with tremendous highs and crushing lows.

Eight times they have rolled the dice since attempting to reach the 1966 World Cup and five times they have fallen short. In each of the three successful missions – against Iran, Estonia and Bosnia, the Boys in Green cemented qualification with a favourable first-leg result.

Ian Harte and Robbie Keane scored in a 2-0 win at home to Iran en route to World Cup 2002.

Keane then nabbed a brace in Estonia to add to Keith Andrews and Jon Walters goals in a resounding 4-0 win in Tallinn before Euro 2012.

And Robbie Brady ghosted through the dense Zenica fog two years ago to score a vital away goal in a 1-1 draw with Bosnia which was duly built on at home.

So O’neill not only appreciates the importance of keeping the tie alive in the Danish capital tonight, but stressed the need for a foothold.

“The players have matured,” he said. “A sort of inner selfbelief that’s not flaunted or anything but a belief that we know we can go out and compete.

“We know what we have to do. We know we must compete for almost everything at every given minute.

“Historically speaking the Republic of Ireland, even with some of the great players that have played in the past, have not been great goalscorers.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t score out here. We can. The away goal is important and it’s something we think we’re capable of doing.

“We’re just going to go for it. It’s easy to say we’re going to go for it, but that doesn’t mean gung-ho or whatever the case may be.

“But we need to get on the front foot at some stage, as we were against Wales. The opening 15 minutes of the game we were on the back foot naturally.

“They’re playing at home and we’ve had to defend strongly just to get a foothold in the game. We started to do that and then the game levelled out.

“Then we scored the goal. And, of course, we had to defend strongly in the last 25 minutes. Which we did.”

And he added: “We’ve had tough games away from home in this competition, starting in