Martin O’Neill likes to point out there were times when he was alone in believing in this Ireland team.
He often recalls that after Scotland had come to Dublin and picked up a point in June 2015, few except O’Neill, Roy Keane and his players believed that Ireland would qualify for the European Championships.
That they did was down to a victory against Germany in October of that year and, as importantly, an implosion from Scotland who took four points from their last four games, which included a defeat in Georgia.
So when he sat in the press conference after the Ireland defeat in the Aviva on Tuesday night and was asked first up if Ireland had blown it, he was drawing on those events and a lifetime in football when he insisted, no they hadn’t. Anything is possible and Ireland are capable of winning away in Wales and making a World Cup play-off.
What’s more, he says that if you had told him that Ireland would need to win their last two games to make a play-off before the qualifiers began, he would possibly have taken it.
What he didn’t add was that when Ireland beat Austria in Vienna last November, there were greater prizes on offer than stumbling towards the last two games and hoping that something would turn up. In 2016 Ireland took ten points from their first four qualifiers.
At that moment, Ireland had the chance to do something remarkable, but that chance has been squandered.
Ireland are capable of beating Wales next month, but their best chance of beating them was in Dublin last March which instead turned out to be one of the worst games of football ever played at Lansdowne Road, and which Ireland only tried to win when Neil Taylor had been sent off for breaking Seamus Coleman’s leg.
If anyone is playing as Scotland did in the last campaign at this point, it’s Ireland. In 2017, O’Neill’s side have taken three points from four games, three of which were at home. If there was a benefit in beating Austria, it is now only as protection against the dismal performances which followed.
O’Neill is a manager who has always stressed the importance of winning. He arrived in 2013 talking about how talented youngsters were all well and good, but he needed players right away because he wanted to start winning right away.
It’s an admirable approach in many ways, but a few years down the line with those talented youngsters still missing, O’Neill arrived in the press conference on Tuesday night sounding like a man who has been forced to search for other positives.
Serbia were saying how tough Ireland had been, maybe the toughest opponent they’d faced, he said. The players felt they should have had a penalty when Daryl Murphy had been brought down. What he would give for a 27-year-old Robbie Keane. Oh, and the players need to play with their heads.
The chances of that on Tuesday night had ended when Wes Hoolahan was taken off. He was spent undoubtedly, but once he left, Ireland’s imagination left with him.
O’Neill may have had no choice, but the limitations of Ireland’s squad became clear in those dire final minutes when Ireland did all the things a calm and restrained team wouldn’t do. O’Neill mentioned how much he loved James McClean but wondered why he was shooting with his right foot when the ball needed to be kept alive.
At that moment, with Serbia leading and down to ten men, Ireland lacked all authority. This is an ageing side but one that at that moment played like schoolboys.
Ireland may deliver and win their last two games, even if that doesn’t mean they will reach a play-off. Qualification is now unlikely. At that point, there will be a search for scapegoats, but Ireland’s problems are deep and won’t be solved by simply searching for a new manager.
Right now, O’Neill is alone or part of a small group who still believes it’s all possible. It is a familiar story but then Irish football is limited not just in its talent, but in its storylines.
Unless more radical action is taken, the next Irish manager will be in Martin O’Neill’s position soon enough. He will be sitting in a room full of skeptics, looking for positives while being that lone voice that insists he still believes in this team despite their many limitations.
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