Armenia V Republic of Ireland - Friday, 3rd September 2010 - Euro 2012 Qualifier

[tetsujin1979]

Shay Given - save well when called upon, which is always the mark of a good pro. Little worried that he seemed to catch a lot of the shots on the second bounce. Clean sheet will do him good
Kevin Kilbane - was good going forward on the overlap, but still defensively suspect. Targetted quite a bit by the opposition, and not given enough cover by McGeady
Richard Dunne - Bizarre defensive header aside, another towering performance
Sean St Ledger - Solid beside Dunne
John O Shea - Excellent, one of his best games for Ireland. Benefiting from a run in the starting XI at United
Aiden McGeady - Frustrated again, was identified early on as a threat and was double marked, and received some hefty challenges. Still needs to work on his final ball, and the defensive side of his game
Glen Whelan - Faded in the second half, but not a bad game. Could have opened the scoring late in the first half
Paul Green - Made some early mistakes and never really recovered. Suicidal pass in the second half nearly let them in for an equaliser
Liam Lawrence - Linked up well with O'Shea, worked hard and created havoc with crosses. Set pieces were a little below par though
Kevin Doyle - MOTM, never stopped running, gave their defence all kinds of problems, gave us an out ball at every opportunity, run the second half deserved a goal
Robbie Keane - Clearly short of match sharpness, and tried to make up for not winning a penalty by trying to win a penalty for the rest of the game. The early miss, and shot off the post would have haunted lesser players

Subs:
Keith Fahey - Took the goal well, was actually a lot harder than he made it look. Some neat interplay with Keogh and Doyle near the end to keep possession
Andy Keogh - Replaced Doyle as the target man, didn't do a lot, but what he did, he did it well

Green has played better than this, and will again, but will probably lose his place to Keith Andrews when he returns. I actually think Green is a better player, but Andrews makes less mistakes. Make of that what you will.
Despite some deserved criticism, I'd still start McGeady against Andorra (assuming Duff is unavailable) and give Cunningham his first competitive start.
Fahey's goal will give him confidence at this level, and I'd like to see him start in midfield alongside Whelan against Andorra, who are not going to be making many forward runs.
3 points is 3 points, end of story. Assuming we win on tuesday, we'll have 6 points, and be 2 points better off than at the same point in the last qualifiers.

[elroy]

lads for those of ye who are watching the slovakia game, how is that going? I know its nil nil and half time but who is looking the better team. A draw there would make it a damn good day.

[seanfhear]

Good cool finish by Keith Fahey. A lot of players would panic in that situation and sky it.

[Comic Book Guy]

Still 0-0, Slovakia don't look anything special.

[boovidge]

just missed an incredible chance!

[Ceirtlis]

Slovakia owning the ball, Macedonia just had a good effort though by Pandev.

[elroy]

Macedonia down to 10 men with 5 mins to go. Hold on Macedonia!!

[shakermaker1982]

Given 6
O'Shea 6
Kilbane 5
Dunne 8
St Ledger 9
McGeady 5
Lawrence 7
Whelan 6
Green 6
Keane 6
Doyle 9

I thought Doyle and St Ledger were excellent.

Fahey saved the day. If he hadn't scored we'd have been slitting our wrists. The Trap would be getting slagged off and Keane would be getting a bit of abuse from some fans as well. Funny old game. Green can and will play better. Andrews has been mr invisible for many a game so I'd still stick with Green for Tuesday night.

[tommy_c12000]

Well did it finish 0-0. Great result for Ireland if it did

[boovidge]

no. slovakia scored in the last min.

[geysir]

Andrews is injured anyway and is out for the next game.

worst mistakes of the game
1. Robbie's golden goal chance
2. Dunne's og of the decade moment.
3. Green's suicidal pass

[Murfinator]

So questions posed by todays game.

-> Is lack of game time impacting on Keane's game?
-> Did McGeady take his chance to challenge Duff for his place?
-> Is Paul Green good enough for this level?
-> If Keith Fahey is to get a starting position where exactly should that be and at whos expense?
-> Is Kilbane really the best option we have at left back?

[tommy_c12000]

So questions posed by todays game.

-> Is lack of game time impacting on Keane's game?
-> Did McGeady take his chance to challenge Duff for his place?
-> Is Paul Green good enough for this level?
-> If Keith Fahey is to get a starting position where exactly should that be and at whos expense?
-> Is Kilbane really the best option we have at left back?

Answers:
-Yes
-Not given ample opportunity
-Not a hope
-centrally ahead of Andrews and Green
-No way

[elroy]

I think the importance of match practice was summed up by Shay Given today. Have we ever see him spill so many balls as he did today? I know it was probably dry and sticky there today but it was unusual for the lad.

[Murfinator]

Don't know if I'd agree, Lawrence has had less match time in the past two months than both Keane and Given and played a blinder today.

[Charlie Darwin]

I think it was a good all-round performance, even allowing for the opposition. Only players who struggled were Green (was good off the ball but lacked precision on it) and McGeady (didn't get much of the ball but didn't look too hungry for it either). Would be great if Doyle and Keane can open their accounts now on Tuesday.

[TrapAPony]

Answers:
-Yes
-Not given ample opportunity
-Not a hope
-centrally ahead of Andrews and Green
-No way

Would agree with you bar the second answer where I would have said no.

[sheao]

If we can win all of our home games and our away game with Andorra and get at least a draw in the rest we should have an exellent chance of winning this group.

[drummerboy]

Given 8 – Kept busy, done what he had to do professionally

O'Shea 7 - Was very solid. Defensively solid, didn't attack much.
Kilbane 6 – Good going forward but fading pace was exposed at times, and needs to be replaced. Great servant but time to move over.
Dunne 7 – Someone who hasn't been able to train due to injury, but acquitted himself excently.
St Ledger 7 – Done well, took a few chances with bouncing balls but got away with them, improving all the time.

Lawence 8 _ Good game, probing all the time and working his knacks off. Looked shattered at the end
Green 5 – Worked hard, but made some bad mistakes which he was lucky enough to get away with.
Whelan 6 – Like Green worked hard. didn't make any mistakes but didn't really get on the ball much.
McGeady 6.5 – There were times when he could have been fed the ball and didn't get it early enough. Was double marked, so need ball early. However when he did get the ball, should have made more of the possession.

Doyle 9 – Wonderful, selfless performance. Challenged for every ball, chased lost causes all night - the perfect target man.
Keane 7 – Robbie was his usual frustrating self. Pieces of great skill, should have scored 2 but was on the prowl all night.

Fahy – took his goal really well
Keogh – Worked his ass off, and deserves more time in his natural position

[Charlie Darwin]

Wonderful article in the Star:


NORTHERN IRELAND SCRAPE A WIN OVER ARMENIA

ABOVE: Steven Craigan celebrates the win

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/152292/Northern-Ireland-scrape-a-win-over-Armenia/

[Scooby Doo]

Today's match was definately up there with Cyprus at home of the last campaign for its scary factor. I was a nervous wreck! Echoing previous posts, it is a shame that a player like Liam Lawrence has ended up at Portsmouth. A real find for Ireland in the last year and busted his balls for the cause today creating glimpses of magic with his crosses, in the absence of Duff.
McGeady had a poor game but we can still hope he'll improve in the Russian League. I'd say he was one frustrated chap tonight.
Disappointed with Green tonight but I wouldn't rule him out just yet. His step up from the depths of the lower Championship to International football has been quite sudden.
Killer, as much as I love the man, he must be replaced or he could end up costing us a few games. Was so off the pace tonight and appeared very vulnerable. Not the Kilbane we saw THAT night in Paris.
Keane will be fine. He could have had three tonight. We'd be banjaxed without him.
And as for Kevin Doyle - the man is a godsend. What a totally selfless, brave and talented player. One of his finest performances in a green shirt, and he has had a few really fine games for us.
Overall, a very pleasing result but our players really need some game time in the soming weeks before Russia/Slovakia and I think we need Ward/Coleman/Cunningham to fill in a fullback position and relieve KK. Arshavin will tear him a new one!
One further note: anyone think that Trap left the pitch tonight looking a more than a tad p!ssed off or was it my imagination?

[Noelys Guitar]

Great post SD but Trap definetely skipped down the tunnel a happy man. Witness the interviews. And the Fahey substitution and telling Fahey to stick "around" with Doyle and Keane was the key as in stay close to their flicks. Trap was happy. This match reminds me of Scotland away 87. Do the business. How many games have we played away over the years, in some cases semi-dominating and ending up with nothing. We deserved to win today and we did. But I'm sure like you/most of us I was kicking/punching stuff until and after the goal went in. By the way I have had a fair few pints celebrating!

[Scooby Doo]

Must have been paranoia then. Trap just seemed to storm down the tunnel fairly sharpish after the final whistle. Saw the interview with him afterwards and he did seem a happy man. His English is coming on very well I must say. Manuela must be working overtime. Lucky Trap!
For me the match stands in contrast to Montenegro away and the positive result this time is a reflection of the progress that has been made. The team of two years ago would not have made it out of Yereven with a win IMO. The Staunton Ireland would have been faced with a de ja vue of Cyprus away07!
Trap's formula, although not attractive to watch at times and entirely unconducive to relieving the fraught nerves of long-suffering Ireland fans, is working at the minute and is getting the best out of the majority of our key players. So to dust off an old chestnut - 'In Trap We Trust'!

And yeah Noely, I have a glass panel on a coffee table that needs replacing in the morning! :o

[Sullivinho]

Yeah, Trap was a happy man alright. Manuela was positively giddy about the whole experience.


Today's match was definately up there with Cyprus at home of the last campaign for its scary factor.

Speaking of Cyprus and scares, I'll bet the Portugese didn't see that 4-4 home draw sneaking up on them.

[Razors left peg]

I was never tortured so much during an Ireland game in my entire life. Im on holiday in Canada at the moment and got my feckin times mixed up for kick off and by the time I realised I wasnt able to get to a computer to see it so was relying on text message updates for the entire game.Never wanna go through that again!!!

Without havin seen any of the game and just judging on what the match reports I read I reckon that is a game we would have drawn too often in the past. These fellas are no mugs at home as some of their results in recent qualifying show so from my point of view Im just delighted with a 3 pts start to the campaign and onwards and upwards from here

[Stuttgart88]

Very positive reaction to the result & performance from RTE panel

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/mns/2010/0903/reaction_av.html

[geysir]

Kevin Kilbane - was good going forward on the overlap, but still defensively suspect. Targetted quite a bit by the opposition,

Or just simply that Armenia's right winger was better than their LM and therefore he was the target for their attacks.

[geysir]

It would be nice if Dunne could manage headers like that in the opposition box.

[boovidge]

I'm surprised at the overwhelmingly positive reaction from the RTE panel tbh. There are still some obvious flaws in our team. The absolute lack of creativity in the middle being the most obvious one.

[Stuttgart88]

It would be nice if Dunne could manage headers like that in the opposition box. He did twice against Bulgaria. Dunne never just makes ordinary mistakes though, does he?

I have to say Given's handling has come in for some unjust criticism here. A lot of shots bounced just in front of him and I think he was fully aware that there was nobody following up. He took the safe option and took the sting out of the ball rather than risking a mistake. His only handling error got him a hard kick in the ribs in the first half, when he was trying to prevent a corner.

I was a bit surprised at RTE reaction but I think in the context of the heat and our players' far-from-ideal preparation I think they realised that this was a very decent result. I think this team has at least another 20% in it, if they can find it.

To Digress: great result for NI. Fair play to them. Better away result than anything we've managed for a long time!

[Comic Book Guy]

Last 10 minutes were very nervy because everytime we cleared from a corner of free there was no pressure on their players outside the box, I had visions of a nasty deflection ending up in our net or some such.
Still as Trap would say it's all about the result. Roll on Tuesday.

[geysir]

George Hamilton on RTE, after Ireland scored, was back to his old tricks, did almost everything in his power to apply the curse. Fortunately his powers are on the wane.
Dare I speak so soon :)

[Noelys Guitar]

For anyone who can access ESPN3.com you can watch the entire match again (and any other game from yesterday). Just watched the first half of the Andora v Russia game. Andorra had a few chances. Mind you they have possibly the worst footballer in international history playing at right back (sure to score against us on Tuesday now!). Unbelievably bad player. I would start McGeady again against Andorra. Yesterday McGeady's ball into the center early in the second half was an gem of a ball. I felt he did OK when he got a free run on the ball. He can't shoot and should be told by Trap to play the ball across the box when he gets close to the box. having seen both Russia and Slovakia yesterday there is very little between the three of us. Russia are very cautious under Advocat (mirror image of us in many ways) and will be very hard to beat but also will find it very hard to beat us they way the play. Slovakia are very open and I feel our best chance of topping the group is taking 4 points at least from them.

[boovidge]

tbf to mcgeady he didn't really get much of the ball and he's not match fit. i do worry about his lack of defensive cover for kilbane though.

[tetsujin1979]

Or just simply that Armenia's right winger was better than their LM and therefore he was the target for their attacks.
that's a possibility, but compare and contrast the partnership of O'Shea and Lawrence VS Kilbane and McGeady. A fully fit, natural defender playing regularly at club level combined with a hard working crosser of the ball VS a square peg in a round hole combined with a more skillful player who shirks his defensive responsibilities. McGeady left Kilbane far more exposed than Lawrence did O'Shea. I honestly don't remember them getting to the byline to cross into the box on that right hand side.

[geysir]

I don't disagree with you Tets but just saying the Armenian right winger was their attacking player, the one who was talented enough and fast enough to take a player on and would be the natural focus of their attacks, regardless of who we had at LB.
Should also be noted also that the Armenia's RB was infinitely better than their LB. I thought when it came to subs time that Trap would have taken off a knackered (out on his feet) Lawrence, shift over McGeady to RM and bring on Fahey.
Surely we would have scored 2 then :)

[Stuttgart88]

Yep, I was convinced Lawrence was going to make way.

Robbie deserves stick for his misses, but watching the goal again he did great work to get Lawrence's pass under control and to turn the ball back into the danger area. The ball broke to Fahey a bit fortunately but it was pretty determined work by the front two.

[Spudulika]

Great atmos in the ground last night, and on the way in. Many thanks to a certain poster on here (who is on his way home now as I write) for sharing a taxi back to the centre. Arrived back tired but happy and relieved, the locals I was with were fierce cheesed off at a loss, they figured it was a draw all the way. Didn't think much of Green and looks like we'll need Dunne to lash into Pogrebnyak. Watched the Russia game on NTV at the hotel, they're not up to much and are a one man team, give Arshavin a couple of belts and they have nothing. Andorra had the best chances and were destroyed by the ref. Can't see any less than 2 points or at least 4 from Russia!

[Stuttgart88]

What was I saying a few pages back about Irish self-loathing?

From today's Indo - author unnamed, but I'm guessing David Kelly.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/rocky-irish-road-to-solid-ground-2324373.html

You'd swear Armenia were full of skill and artistry and were worthy of a clear victory but for the gall of the Irish to actually create 3 gilt-edged chances and have a clear penalty turned down.

Lawrence hapless?

Not a cool head in sight? I thought it was the cool heads of the senior players that told in the end to be honest. A crazy Dunne moment aside, Dunne & O'Shea in particular were coolness personified. I think collectively the team realised that if Armenia could be kept goalless the match winning chance would come at some stage, no matter how late.

We actually created clear chances, via one route or another. They created a few scary moments, that were probably only as scary as they were because of the ingrained memories of Croatia, Macedonia, Israel and Slovakia away. Very imbalanced article - in my opinion the tone discredits any of the fair criticism that was offered.

[Noelys Guitar]

All trying to be Dunphyesque. Kelly like a few other journos are ****ed off because Trap is not a "matey" type. You can be certain Trap won't ever be calling Kelly's mobile/landline/pidgeon/can on string (for any reason) playing the politician.

[DannyInvincible]

'Tis a strange piece alright.


A new campaign, but before the business began an unkind reminder of historic hurt, Robbie Keane bowing to the governing body's lily-livered sop to high-profile boobery.

"I promise to abide by the rules of fair play," he intones gravely, perhaps quietly wondering if his and Ireland's summer might have been spent differently had such a Corinthian spirit applied in Paris last November.

Is that a personal dig at Robbie? What did the author expect him to do?

As for the "tactical straitjacket" having been "re-fitted", we created plenty of chances and should have won the game by more, as has been highlighted by others here. Can't understand the criticism of Lawrence at all. He and Doyle were our best players yesterday.

[Stuttgart88]

He also had a dig at Robbie's part in the goal - can't remember exact words - but something like Keane pondering when he had an easy chance to shoot. In my recollection he took the ball well with his chest and turned his marker who recovered by toeing the ball towards Doyle. I never once thought Robbie was slow to get the shot away and I wasn't in the mood to be charitable towards Robbie yesterday.

[geysir]

"Robbie Keane bowing to the governing body's lily-livered sop to high-profile boobery."

He sure gets a lot of milage out of using "lily-livered" to describe FIFA/UEFA.

[Sullivinho]

All trying to be Dunphyesque.

Eamon wasn't very Dunphyesque yesterday so I s'pose someone has to pick up the slack. Describing Lawrence as 'hapless' undermines this guy's opinion really.

[Spudulika]

When Ireland do well, winning against a growing side, away from home, in difficult circumstances (you'd have to be there to feel the heat in the place) it's easy to have a dig at a team. The problem is that about zero Irish journalists know anything about "lesser nations" and as a result they decide to pontificate about how badly Ireland played when they don't do "an England". Sorry, but I watched Russia barely squeeze by Andorra last night and the Russian media today are relieved that they played a little better than 3 years ago. Was it David Kelly who wrote this? It does seem like some of his shots at Leinster rugby of old, and I suppose it just sells newspapers. I saw the RTE post-match piece and Dunphy was certainly decent and realistic, plus the panel seemed to know that the Armenians were up for it. However Bill was trying the stir with - new tactics, straightjacket off crap. It's depressing but it's aping the motherland's way of doing things, nothing more or less.

[geysir]

I think both Dunphy and Giles were rather more positive because of the formidable presence of Brady, a man who had the "moral courage" to leave his chair and get involved with the set up.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Good result, but another highly mediocre performance. If you trek across to Eurasia, a modicum of 'entertainment' would be nice.
To be frank it was like watching 'paint dry' at times.

We're hard to beat but when McGeady/Liam Lawrence are our biggest creative outlets, something is seriously wrong.
That and Robbie relying on 'flicks' from over a decade ago!

Trapp has made his views on 'Hairweave' and Andy Reid abundantly clear but ultimately this is why we'll won't achieve as we won't score enough goals or win enough games.

[zinedineontour]

Dont understand the poor marks kilbane keeps getting thought after the early few mins he did a good job and nobody has really stepped up to the plate as a viable option at left back to take his place. Thought green looked very nervous but got stuck in well and will learn from this game. Overall shaky performance but three points is all that matters and other teams will suffer in that heat and lose points over there. 3 points job done move on.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Kilbane has been a great servant, but he really is an accident waiting to happen. As we saw in the WCQ's.

[awayfan]

Maybe the Andorra game on Tuesday as an early replacement for "Killer" might be the ideal opportunity to give Greg Cunningham a run at left Back. Any player that can make the current Man City squad is worth a try.