Isn’t seen as an
Troy Parrott’s miss with the game poised at 1-1 — when he fired weakly at Craig Gordon — was key but Egan was quick to defend the young striker, who had earlier seen a ‘goal’ rightly ruled out for offside.
“If we create we want to put them away but he took his ‘goal’ well that was offside,” said Egan (below). “Sometimes keepers make big saves. Gordon’s a top keeper and he made a top save.
“On another day Troy sticks that in the back of the net and we get the lead again. They are the fine margins.
“But it’s not just that, as a team we set high standards.
“We played well on Saturday but we have to get the results to go with it. In the second half they just edged it but we did more than enough to get a draw.”
With the starting side boasting an average age of just over 24, the Boys In Green have age on their side in the coming years.
“You could see the team the other night, we had a lot of young players, the future is very bright for Ireland.
“There are a lot of young players coming through and if they manage to keep improving at the rate they are going, they are going to have big careers.
Crowd
“Coming away to Scotland is a tough game as we saw with Ukraine there the other night.
“We started the game fantastic, took the lead and quietened the crowd. The first half really played out well so I don’t think the ability is in question, the performances are not in question, it’s just the fine margins in football.”
Defeat to Armenia tomorrow in Dublin would send Kenny’s men to the bottom of the group and condemn them to League C.
“I never think negatively. A a lot of people try and think negatively but I am very positive.
“I am sure the lads are all chomping at the bit to put it right tomorrow night.”
SOME might say, same old story: decent performance, poor result.
But wasn’t it an absolutely cracking game of football? And whoever in UEFA came up with the idea of the Nations League, they’re looking like a genius right now. The competitive action we saw in Hampden Park is in a different league to those meaningless friendlies with countless substitutions to give players experience. As every Irish football manager tends to find out eventually, supporters are comfortable being in a camp. But regarding the manager’s performance, even the greatest success of them all, Jack Charlton, had a strong anti-camp.
That’s why whatever camp you are in, the reality is international football is a results business.
Everyone seemed to think we were absolutely fantastic in the first-half, before things went horribly wrong in the second.
The truth is goals always shape our perspective on analysis. I didn’t think we were as good as people said in the first half or as bad as people said in the second.
Certainly there was a touch of misfortune over the penalty winner, dispatched nonchalantly by Ryan Christie. What Stephen Kenny has to avoid is being seen as an ‘unlucky’ manager in the way Eoin Hand is sometimes remembered. No one can deny there has been progress, but there is a dishonesty about the idea that how you try and get the result is more important than the result itself. Scotland are a decent side, but they couldn’t qualify for the World Cup.
And so the obsession with PR is disingenuous, because if this Irish team is all about a new identity, how on earth does a side like Scotland comfortably command over 60 per cent possession?
But it’s how you then use the ball that determines whether you are a success.
Too many managers have bought into believing that passing the ball sideways in your own half makes you look like a good team.
Teams of real authority are able to come up with the big moments and have the humility to do whatever it takes to win.
Of course Kenny is under pressure, because the results haven’t been good enough.
But let’s be fair to a man that didn’t inherit an easy task and has a likability that means the country is still behind him.
Some in the football community were frustrated listening to him trying to defend Alan Browne’s penalty concession with a bizarre claim that it was a Scottish player pushing Browne, when it was clearly John Egan.
But that’s the pressure that comes when you don’t get the right result.
Unlucky
There is not a manager in the world who wouldn’t have thought the penalty award by Swiss referee Sandro Scharer was a little unlucky.
That’s why Kenny’s real job is to stop being an ‘unlucky’ manager and start getting results.
The good thing is that when you play for Ireland, every game means something.
Kenny’s real results business starts in March. We just simply have to be in Germany in 2024.
And with two automatic qualifiers from each group, qualification is easier than getting to a World Cup.
The reality of our Nations League inconsistency is we have blown a possibility for a play-off back-up.
A lot of the coverage has focused on Troy Parrott. When he missed that big second-half chance, it was a defining moment in this contest.
But Parrott is still a young man with big potential. He won’t be 21 until February.
Still a Tottenham player, his current loan spell at Preston North End has lacked goals.
It was interesting that in Preston’s last game at home to Sheffield United, the disappointing 2-0 defeat saw Parrott substituted for Seani Maguire when Preston needed goals.
There is no doubt that Parrott has ability. But I would like the Irish management to help him, because he is not just a potential goalscorer, he has the technical ability that should make him someone that creates a bundle of opportunities for other players.
Creator
When we look back at our defeat at Hampden Park in a tight game, the real difference was that whilst Scotland had
John McGinn, we lacked an attacking midfield creator of real substance.
What really troubled the Scottish defence was the extraordinary pace of Michael Obafemi.
I would like to have seen a Plan B from Kenny.
The impressively physical Scottish defence was struggling with the ferocious and