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

'Tis a strange piece alright.

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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.

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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.

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.

"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.

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

All trying to be Dunphyesque.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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Spot on, felt the same. It was a very good result, ok performance, but the lads were unusually very positive. Definitely the presence of Brady.

Looked out for Kellys article in the indo today after comments highlighted by Stutts last week. The man is overly critical to say the least.

With regard to the tactical straight jacket being lifted, I think it's probably no coincidence that the only times we have played more offensively and more enterprisingly were on the only occasions under Trap that we've been behind. Even at home to Georgia after going 1-0 down we eventually took charge, even if the equaliser was lucky. In Italy we played a very strong second half and against France we played a very strong second leg.

It's the performance/formation/jitters after we have scored first, is the issue.

I think what I was trying to say is that it's not that a Trap-fitted strait jacket is taken off, it's the sheer fact that cautious containment isn't an option when when you're staring at defeat.

Bumping thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm28dP8rZP8

Closed thread.