Again, not that impressive.
There seems to be this growing divide among Irish national team followers. On the one hand, you have those who are delighted with how we’re doing and on the other, the ones who aren’t.
I think we’re going to get mauled at some point. Utterly mauled. I suspect it will be Russia away, but it could be Slovakia at home, or even Euro 2012 itself if we are lucky enough to get that far.
Russia at home should have been it, the way they glided into a three nil lead with no problems. The two goals we got back late covered it up, but it was a shocking night.
The game last night is just an another example if Ireland flattering to deceive. A two-nil win, but a cavalcade of problems all over the field. We can’t pass effectively, the defence was very, very dodgy without Dunne, the centre midfield was lacklustre as always and the front pair were uninspiring.
Keane is the big story, getting his fifty goals, and fair play to him. But again, not great. His first took a gigantic deflection on the way into the net, and the second was the result of a defensive howler.
Given should get more of the credit for the result, some important saves, ever the leader at the back. The man can’t get out of Manchester fast enough, even if it is to a team as competitively worthless as Celtic.
The result is got, in a difficult place for Ireland to get a result, but we are still third, we still have to play Russia away, we still have a lot of problems to overcome.
On a last word, the RTE commentary team were, at times, bizarre last night. Between having their noses firmly stuck up Robbie Keane’s ass and their panicked performance in the last ten minutes – convinced Macedonia would score – they were all over the place.
Kinda like the team.
