20 years ago, Roy Hodgson witnessed first hand the violence that marred England and Ireland’s Lansdowne friendly.
The English manager was there as violence erupted in the Dublin stands and he has hit out at the perpetrators of the trouble back in 1995. He hopes that those days are long gone.
The Three Lions squad were at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night to sample the surrondings ahead of Sunday’s clash with Martin O’Neill’s men but, as they come having not managed to beat the Irish in 30 years, Hodgson has sent a strong message to the travelling support.
Not since March 1985 have England managed to oust their neighbours from across the Irish Sea but it was the game a decade later that concerns the manager the most.
“I was at the game. It was a particularly bad time and it was a particularly bad time for English football and for the behaviour of English fans,” Hodgson said.
“And it was a bad time, unfortunately, for Ireland. I’d like to think that, in the 20 years, things have moved on considerably and that things are considerably better on both fronts.
“All we’re interested in is one thing and one thing alone, playing a very good game of football, using this game as the test we need it to be before we move on to important qualifiers a week later. The last thing we want to do is to be talking about incidents after the game.
“We can only hope that both sets of fans behave themselves and particularly our fans do not try to provoke the Irish fans by doing things they really should not do. They know they shouldn’t do them, we’re making it clear they shouldn’t do them so let’s hope that we don’t have to talk about that after the game.”
Wayne Rooney echoed his manager’s sentiments.
The England captain is closing in on Bobby Charlton’s goalscoring record and, if he were to rack up a hat-trick on Sunday, he would match, Lineker, match Charlton, and then shoot off to 50 on his own.
However, with Ryan Mason having to withdraw from the squad, Rooney will know that he might have to try scoring with Tom Cleverley playing behind him and that poses its own problems.
Even with that worrying distraction, he was also quick to condemn any negative chants or actions either of the fans might be considering ahead of what could be a tension-filled lunchtime.
“We understand the game 20 years ago, the problems there and, as the manager said, the game’s moved on from that and the FA have put the messages out to the fans to see and hopefully the fans will behave themselves.”
If you think that’s gold, Hodgson’s comments on the FIFA situation were even better.
“I’m not going to get involved in that question,” the England boss slammed.
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