O’Neill perplexed at being ‘written off halfway through’ qualifying campaign for Russia
MARTIN O’NEILL came out fighting last week to defend his own achievements and the Republic of Ireland manager has also come to the defence of his players for what he feels is over-the-top criticism.
In the build-up to the 1-0 win over Wales, which secured a World Cup play-off place, David Meyler criticised the media for promoting a sense of ‘doom and gloom’ following the draw away to Georgia and defeat by Serbia.
And the hero of Cardiff, goal scorer James McClean, also revealed that the Ireland players used the criticism levelled at them as inspiration to earn a place in the upcoming do-or-die play-off ties with Denmark.
Having labelled Keith Andrews’ assessment that O’Neill (pictured) has been lucky as ‘complete and utter b **** x,’ the Ireland manager believes his players have every right to be aggrieved.
‘If you’re written off, you’re written off as a team, not just a player,’ O’Neill explained. ‘I think what James was saying – going into those matches – was that we’d lost one game in the competition. We had got points on the board early on and people were looking at it as if this was a major lapse then. But the games were difficult. That kind of motivation would be used pretty often. It’s pretty common, that old siege mentality,’ added O’Neill.
‘We felt at the time we were never out of it. Players never lost heart, they didn’t lose faith. The Moldova game, we were missing James, Robbie Brady and that was the game I was worried about. I said to the players that if we beat Moldova we will beat Wales and that was the one. ‘Collectively we felt we could
do it (make the play-offs).
‘James was reacting to a lot of criticism that was flying around and, do you know what, I’m in this game a long, long time and criticism follows you around. It’s not a problem. If you play badly, it’s par for the course. If you do okay, you’re not entitled to be ferociously criticised. Our game against Georgia, certainly in the first half and parts of the second, we did not play well. ‘But what I think you have to do is put certain things into context and over the couple of years here, if you went over the things that have been written, you’re pretty quick to nail us here halfway through a competition.
‘I wouldn’t start drawing all these analogies but I don’t see (horse trainer) Aidan O’Brien talking about a horse having won over four furlongs with another three furlongs to go. You have to wait and see what happens over the line.’