Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DOOMSDAY CLOCK..
Endgame is approaching but Mick insists it’s cuckoo to rule out Ireland’s chances of springing a surprise
MICK MCCARTHY last night blasted the ‘peddlers of doom’ and insists he would have snapped your hand off to be in this position with two games to go.
The Ireland boss has rounded on critics who slated him and his team in the wake of Saturday’s bore draw in Tbilisi.
That result, coupled with Denmark’s home win over Switzerland later that night, means Ireland’s path to automatic qualification is all the more difficult.
Having said that, their fate remains in their own hands.
They will qualify if they beat the Swiss in Geneva tomorrow night or if they beat the Danes in Dublin next month but two draws won’t be enough.
With just six goals scored in six games of the campaign, Ireland will have to develop a cutting edge if they are to upset the odds.
Mccarthy said: “It’s head-to-head against those two teams, so if we win on Tuesday, we’ve qualified.
“If you’d have said that to me on December 1st when the draw was made, I’d have taken it, of course I would.
“It’s been a good campaign so far. We haven’t scored that many goals; we’ve conceded two.
“We’ve been very disciplined, we’ve been tough and hard to play against and we’re going to have to do all of that again against Switzerland. Because we know what a good side they are. Denmark beat them and I watched that game and Kasper Schmeichel made three world-class saves – not good saves, world-class.”
But Mccarthy blasted critics who caned him and his approach to Saturday’s clash in the Georgian capital.
It was the type of performance that Martin O’neill (inset) would have been filleted for towards the end of his career when the team were in a tailspin.
Mccarthy said: “I don’t know where it’s coming from back home. It doesn’t surprise me, some of the peddlers of it, of course. I don’t get it, I really don’t get it.
“I think everybody would take the position we’re in now, going to Switzerland and if we win we qualify, if we beat Denmark we qualify.
“Of course the peddlers of doom and gloom will say ‘well we’ve no chance of winning’. I don’t get that. Who knows, who knows what will happen?
“We’ve been alright, we’ve done better against the better sides, we’ve given better performances.
“I’m looking forward to it – the pressure is on them tomorrow night.”
But while standing firm and defending his troops, Mccarthy does accepts that Ireland will have to play better than they did at the weekend if they are to qualify.
Played off the park at times by Georgia, it was a relief that the hosts left their shooting boots behind and never tested Darren Randolph directly.
But Switzerland and Denmark won’t be so forgiving and Mccarthy said: “The players weren’t in the dressing-room cheering, hollering and hooping because we got a point.
“But I’m just making it plain to them that I appreciate what they’re doing for me, for the team and for the country.
“They’ve grafted in Georgia and again, I’m at a loss why everyone just thinks we should go there and win because you’ve all seen how good they can be.
“I asked them would you have taken four points before we started, beat them at home and draw away? Well I would. Because that’s how you qualify, that’s how you win things.
“It might not end up like that, I know that, but winning at home and drawing away is not a bad recipe. Denmark drew here as well and could have lost the game.”
Mccarthy continued: “And I find it slightly ridiculous (the suggestion) that I didn’t ask them to play better with the ball. We try our level best to play as well as we possibly can.
“If there was any disappointment in the dressing-room, it was with our performance with the ball.
“There are times when you don’t play particularly well and you get beaten. We’ve not played particularly well with the ball but we haven’t been beaten.
“Players want to play and if you’ve not played not as well as you thought you should have, you’ll want to make it better the next time. But Switzerland are under pressure to beat us.”