KEEP CALM.. & KEEP THE BALL, LADS

O’neill reveals his plan to beat the stifling Tbilisi heat

MARTIN O’NEILL is demanding a possession based game in order to avoid a chasing in the torturous Tbilisi heat.

Last October, Georgia came to Dublin and stunned Ireland by dominating large swathes of the first half and were comfortably the better side by the break.

And only for a match-winning moment of pinball-wizardry from Seamus Coleman 11 minutes after the restart, O’neill would have suffered his most humiliating result as Irish boss.

He has poured over footage of that game while locked away in the team hotel this week and last night conceded that Ireland failed to do their job properly.

With temperatures well into the 30s in the Georgian capital – and unlikely to dip below that by kickoff – he knows a big improvement and clever approach is needed to snare vital points.

O’neill said last night: “It’s been a really hot summer here and I don’t imagine the temperature is going to be that much different (by kickoff ).

“It’s there, it’s what we face, and we just have to cope as best we can. I’m sure the players will hopefully adapt and just take it on from there. It will be very hard.

“Can I learn something from the last game? Yes.

“We spent the first three or four minutes trying to close them down quickly, trying to win the ball and get some momentum going.

“Then we seemed to relax and allowed them into the game. If this was in

Dublin, in different climatic conditions, we might be able to go and address it. “But it’s going to be warm out here and I think it’s going to be about how you deal with the ball as much as anything else. We need to try to keep it in these conditions.” O’neill continued: “Georgia came into the Dublin game and started to dictate matters in a way a side playing away from home shouldn’t do.

“And I don’t think it affected their performance in Wales a few days later when I thought they were really excellent (in a 1-1 draw). They could easily have scored a second goal. “Georgia could easily have beaten Serbia here so will probably feel they should have more points on the board and that they’ve been unlucky in the competition.

“So for all of those reasons, and competitive World Cup qualifying games, this is a very difficult game for us. We’re hoping it will be a difficult game for Georgia also.

“But they’re good players, technically very strong as you would expect Georgian players to be and I just think it’s a tough game for us but that said we’re ready.”

O’neill made his competitive debut away to Georgia three years ago when he needed Aiden Mcgeady to bail him out with a late brace to snatch a 2-1 win that got Ireland off to a Euro 2016 flyer.

Mcgeady could well reproduce those heroics, of course, but is an unlikely starter despite rejuvenating his career under Simon Grayson at Preston and now Sunderland.

Of Mcgeady, O’neill said: “Top manager Simon Grayson believes in him and I never lost faith in him, he’s a great talent and it may take something like that for us tonight.

“His performance here will give extra confidence and a feeling that he can do it again.”