There’s no way I’d have dropped our top goal getter
SO NOW we know. It’s Poland and then Scotland up next in Dublin and we need six points. Four will do but we need six. Before the game, it was all about ifs and more ifs. Five games gone and Poland top the group, Scotland have caught us. Germany are still not firing, but they will.
We have to target two wins in March and June to peg Poland back and see off Scotland. That sets us up nicely for getting second place when we resume next season.
Scotland deserved to win on Friday night. If we’d got a point, they would have felt hard done by and we would have been delighted. On the night, they were the better side. A draw would have changed the look of the group too. But Scotland are back in it now as we go into a four-month break from the qualifiers.
It reminded me of a full-blooded, old-school Merseyside derby from the ‘80s, with Peter Reid going head to head in midfield with Steve McMahon and nobody having any time on the ball. It was hell-for-leather damage limitation football. And we played back-to-front football for the first time in a long time and couldn’t get any support up to the front two until the second half.
There was no stand-out performance, but no one was below par. There were some heavy, full-blooded challenges, but no rolling around or-pretend-card waving. It was compelling, but lacking in quality. Everything we expected really.
For such a full-blooded game, the Serbian referee handled the players and the occasion really well. Some foreign officials might not have been so sympathetic with some of the challenges.
The big decision was whether Grant Hanley’s challenge on Shane Long warranted a red card. At the time, I was convinced Hanley should have been dismissed, but looking back at the incident again, t he referee may just have called it right. Shane did brilliantly to win the ball in the first place but because of his speed and touch, he possibly took the ball too far ahead of him to call it a goalscoring opportunity. One moment of real quality can decide a game like that, as we’ve seen over the years. And there’s no doubt that Shaun Maloney’s winning goal was exactly that. It was a wonderful strike after a really wellworked move.
Our defending could have been better. Credit to Scotland for the short corner, which worked to perfection and has obviously been practiced on the training ground with Gordon Strachan and his staff.
BUT IT could have been prevented, we were too slow to react, and Jeff Hendrick knows his challenge on Maloney before he struck wasn’t good enough. But you can’t fault the finish.
The big call was leaving Robbie Keane out. And it looks a bigger one because we lost. Perhaps Martin O’Neill thought Shane Long would provide something different with his pace and younger legs. With Jon Walters playing just behind Shane, there was optimism that we could get at the Scottish back four, who aren’t blessed with pace. This is not just the old pal’s act. I would have still gone with Robbie just because he is still our best chance of getting a goal.
If you look at his goalscoring record, if just one chance is created, you fancy Robbie to take it. In fairness to Shane, mind you, we didn’t create any chances for him.
The back four were fine, I thought John O’Shea had a good game up against Steven Fletcher, and Richard Keogh did well filling in for Marc Wilson. He should get another run-out against the United States on Tuesday.
On the left flank, James McClean did an excellent job helping Stephen Ward out with his defensive responsibilities but he didn’t really get a chance to put crosses into the box and test Stephen Whitaker. There was no surprise in the hostile reception Aiden McGeady received from a partisan Scottish crowd who were determined to make his return to Celtic Park a difficult one.
He looked in the mood to soak up the occasion and the stick and played like a man desperate to make an impression. The early booking probably set him back a bit and as the game wore on, he started to become more of a threat.
It didn’t help that our two wingers spent most of the game on the back foot, dealing with the attacking threat from the Scotland full-backs.
In McGeady’s case he had to help Séamus Coleman out with the lively Ikechi Anya, with Andrew Robertson bombing on alongside him. It was probably Seamus’s toughest test in an Ireland shirt.At least we had Aiden on the pitch to sample that hostility and he stood up to be counted, even if it didn’t go his way on the night.
LOSING James McCarthy was a huge blow for Ireland and we missed his energy, ability and creativity. The midfield was not an area for the fainthearted and even good passers of the ball like Darron Gibson and Jeff Hendrick could not get their foot on the ball and open up the Scots.
It was the same for both midfields, and hard to imagine how even a player with McCarthy’s talents could have made a difference. But let’s hope he is fully fit for the games in June. We need his spark in the midfield to create something for the strikers, whoever they are.
Tuesday’s game against the United States gives Martin O’Neill the opportunity to blood some of the younger players in the squad, while keeping the senior boys around the place because he’s not going to see them until March.
The States will be interesting opponents. There are no real big-hitters in the squad, but they are a hard-working, energetic team under Jurgen Klinsmann and will be a stern test.
I’d like to see the likes of David McGoldrick and Cyrus Christie given a chance to shine. I’ve played with the pair of them at Coventry.
They’re two good lads, who clearly have ability, but the funny thing is I didn’t have a clue they were eligible for Ireland, and strangely the subject never cropped up in conversation.
But I’d be happy to see them around the Ireland squad for years to come.