Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THEY RAN RINGS ROUND US
Darren: We just didn’t see it coming.. we had to chase the game after they went ahead & we got badly punished
THE MOOD is funereal as the dejected players troop to the team bus, their World Cup dream over.
Few are in the mood to talk. For this reporter, there’s a feeling of deja vu.
It doesn’t seem as if 32 years have passed since experiencing a 4-1 hammering at the hands of the Danes, when I was a little closer to the action than the press box – as a ball boy at the side of the pitch throwing in to Jesper Olsen and Frank Stapleton.
In November ‘85, in what was Eoin Hand’s last game in charge, the Danes turned their journey to Dublin into a World Cup qualification party.
The Lansdowne Road ground is unrecognisable now, of course, but the wheel came full circle last night.
Ireland had nothing to play for on that occasion. Last night it was a different story, and after a draw in Copenhagen on Saturday, Irish fans dared to dream.
And that makes the pain so much worse.
Sacrificed at halftime as Martin O’neill went for broke with
Wes Hoolahan and
Aiden McGeady,
Harry Arter and David
Meyler are the first to walk through the media mixed zone.
Neither of them look up as they are asked to stop, and that’s the way it goes as a number of shell-shocked senior players come through.
Glenn Whelan is among them, most likely making the walk for the last time, while others dodge the area completely, taking a side door to the players’ lounge or out to the team bus.
Questions are not welcome here.
Even in Cyprus, when Steve Staunton’s Ireland had lost 5-2 in embarrassing circumstances, Robbie Keane and Damien Duff took the responsibility of fronting up and speaking to the fans through the press.
Finally, and briefly, goalkeeper Darron Randolph stops to give his thoughts to the nation.
“It’s extremely disappointing, obviously ,” said Randolph, clearly distraught at being beaten five times on his home ground.
“We didn’t see that coming.” At any stage?
“Whenever,” came the reply. “Before the game.
“It’s done now.”
Randolph was Ireland’s man of the match in Copenhagen on Saturday, his performance the embodiment of the solid defensive structure Martin O’neill had managed to establish over the past three qualifiers.
But suddenly that stalemate seemed a long way away as the Danes conspired to make the breakthrough, firstly through a calamitous attempt by Cyrus Christie to clear a Christiansen shot that hit the post, then a sublime shot by Christian Eriksen that had the visiting support in the Havelock Square end in raptures.
Randolph had made a couple of decent saves earlier, but still Ireland went down the tunnel 2-1 in arrears and needing to find two goals from somewhere to salvage their dream.
A tall order, of course, but mid field cover was totally sacrificed and tactical naivety was horribly exposed by the Danes.
“We needed to try and get back into the game so you’re going to le leave yourself open,” th the Bray man ackn knowledged.
“We got punished. “Of course, it was only o 2-1. They then got g two goals in quick succession. su
“We had to go and dod the same but i to bviouslyvdidn’ t pan out t that way.
“And then what h happened, happened.”