Austria v Rep of Ireland - Ernst Happel Stadium, Vienna - Sat, 12th Nov 2016 - WCQ

Great result in what was probably the worst ever intl game I have witnessed and thank fck for the cursed Janko.
We started poorly and hardly improved all game but didn't need to as Austria were just rank.
Our goal was perfect, a flower in the desert and blessed were we to have Janko endowed with the responsibility to finish off those real chances. I think the stats said we made about 150 passes, that would be slightly better or worse than San Marino.
Glad to see McGeady come in and do exactly what you'd want him to do, to take the heat off the last 5 minutes.

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

I feel sorry for the Dundalk lads. Just when a domestic side gets to the level where they have to be considered, the bar is raised again.

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They won't be feeling sorry for themselves. Horgan will make debut soon enough and Boyle will be back too, especially if he moves to England.

We did what we do under MON, which was just enough. It wasn't good to watch, if I was drinking I'd have forgotten every second by now, but we got the result. And at no point in the second half did I fear we'd concede. It's an amazing turnaround for the national team.

We should not get too carried away with this result, Austria's recent form has been pretty poor, one win in the last 6 if you include this game.
1 point from their last 4 home games.

It is being reported that Janko has signed an advertising deal with Specsavers.

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

I'd second the thoughts on Horgan, thought for sure he was coming on at the end. His time will come, I know it, but he might have to be playing outside of Ireland before he's given it.

Things do seem to be unusually well set-up in the Ireland team, and I mean that from a perspective of their being no inter-squad drama or incessant "Will X declare?/Will Y be asked back?" type stuff all the time. MON and Keane have found a squad that just works.

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So we won't mention Arter then...

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Originally Posted by liamoo11

he was very good great composure nice passing great sub for us to have to impact games especially at home when we might need some guile

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Somewhere out there there's a comma crying.

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

We should not get too carried away

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who is getting carried away? having said that we are top by 2 pts with two away games against our main rivals played. very good start to the campaign

I'm getting carried away. It's our best start to a campaign ever I think! We've two away games out of the way against the big four, all of the others have only played one. Basically it's totally dependent on our home form now and there's reason for optimism there after the last campaign (unbeaten at least).

That's the best Ireland result that I've attended. I was beginning to think I was a bit of a jinx, or at least my absence being a lucky charm having missed the Germany games last time and Italy in Lille.

Wales are proving to be a bit of a one man team again after flirting with the idea that they're not in France. Serbia look the biggest threat, I'm not sure who it was that wanted them to win last night but that would have definitely been the worst outcome from our point of view.

Another example of how our world doesn't crumble without Glenn Whelan too. Not meaning to pick on him but we're a better team without him. Meyler was excellent, Arter had a really good second half.

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Originally Posted by The Fly

Somewhere out there there's a comma crying.

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Nah, it's hiding. It's a comma chameleon...

Just thinking - did McGoldrick touch the ball after he came on?

The camera angle being so far out made it hard to spot individual players at times, but I can't remember a single contribution he made.

Did the same in the pre-Euros game against Belarus as I recall. Not sold on him at all unfortunately.

A great result, and ultimately a deserved result. Finally we've gone and won a game in a country where we could have won. I'm thinking back to recent games against Bulgaria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Israel et al, and didn't push on when a win was there for the taking. As much as I disagree with O'Neill at times, he's put something into the group that has arguably been missing since the 02 campaign. The players obviously are pulling for each other, and you would have to say that we are where we deserve to be after phase 1 of the group.

A crap stream for the game last night probably helped, purely because the quality - from both sides it must be said - wasn't there. There were at most 5 decent passages of football, we took our chance, they didn't. In fact, Austria looked almost Ireland-esque in their chasing of the game, with very panicked football.
You would have to say that they are probably out of the running now, although to be very fair to them, they had a stinker of a fixtures draw.

It's very difficult to know what approach to take in 2017. taking each game on it's merits Bill, avoiding defeat against our rivals is probably the more pragmatic approach to take from here on in. 20 points will see us into the runners up spot. Wales did not look at all convincing last night, and haven't been so far - they are where they deserve to be too. Wales probably have to come to Dublin looking for the win which should help us.


Robbie Brady's yellow was bloody stupid, and puts even more pressure on Stephen Ward to be fit for March. A settled back 5 is key, even if I think there are better alternatives available, a settled defence means so much at this level. Clark and Duffy were excellent last night, while Coleman won the three points with an incredible tackle on Arnautovic, where he would have scored, one of three times he only got free during the game - he was marshalled excellently.

You would have to concede that Hoolahan and McClean should be considered first-choice starters now. The fact that both are next two games are stand-alone competitive fixtures will help Hoolahan. You can see that most good progressive football we play involves him. It is going to be crucial to mould a successor for the medium term future.


Finally, I hope for the Iceland game in March, and whatever other friendlies take place in June, that O'Neill gives serious game time to the following:
Cunningham, O'Kane, Hayes, Horgan, Egan, Rooney, O'Dowda.
I would love to see us in a situation where the squad gets filled out with reliable replacements or genuine alternatives. I have the opinion that what happened with Meyler yesterday is not unusual - an enforced change mid-game has no real impact on the team, whereas if we were to start with him, I wouldn't be as confident.
Make the offer to Scott Hogan. A final offer, then draw a line under it.
2017 has so much potential.

This was the last time we beat Austria, some snatches of play from the pint sized wizard of the wing Joey Havarty at nr 11.
Pitch invasions after the equaliser, crowds sitting on the floodlight pylons, the sideline invisible. If we manage a similar result at home I doubt the celebrations will be as demented.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ShVGIk1Gec

Meyler is obviously not as fashionable as other alternatives and so will have to do a lot more to get close to the same kind of praise, but I can't recall many occasions when he has let us down.

Away to Germany he did a job for us, home to Germany he did a similar job to last night, one of the best players on the park in Craven Cottage when we put forth a great performance against Italy, same in the friendly win against U.S.A.

I'm a big fan of his. I think he's a jack of all trades.

Only black mark I can think of is when he looked poor against Belarus, but so did everyone that day.

I don't know what was going on when Meyler won the ball, he never touched the guy as far as I can see, seems it was just a dive to try an get a free kick?

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

I don't know what was going on when Meyler won the ball, he never touched the guy as far as I can see, seems it was just a dive to try an get a free kick?

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Even in that you tube clip from the game in 1963, you can see an austrian player clearly take a dive in the box at the end, feigning a blow to the head.

They were feigning being fouled throughout the game yesterday, the 'Meyler incident' was just one of the more obvious.

Some good posts on this page, not least comma chameleon!

The team still has weaknesses but one great strength these days - and in fairness under Trap too - is that we nearly always have a goal in us.

It's quite rare for us to be in such a good position. I'm sure O'Neil told them this game can be won, not something I'm confident many of our previous managers (or media) would have said. Away wins against rivals (a) puts us ahead (b) puts the onus on them to catch up and (c) buys insurance. After 8 holes we're 2 under par, our rivals are level or worse.

Another positive is that Georgia away is beginning to look a bit less dangerous too. I don't know whether this is more in line with Paul's or Geysir's opinion but I was worried about that trip last month, much less so now.

Has anyone got a view on how many points will now be needed to win the group, and get second? I haven't got the table handy but I'm thinking 21/22, and 18/19 maybe.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Some good posts on this page, not least comma chameleon!

The team still has weaknesses but one great strength these days - and in fairness under Trap too - is that we nearly always have a goal in us.

It's quite rare for us to be in such a good position. I'm sure O'Neil told them this game can be won, not something I'm confident many of our previous managers (or media) would have said. Away wins against rivals (a) puts us ahead (b) puts the onus on them to catch up and (c) buys insurance. After 8 holes we're 2 under par, our rivals are level or worse.

Another positive is that Georgia away is beginning to look a bit less dangerous too. I don't know whether this is more in line with Paul's or Geysir's opinion but I was worried about that trip last month, much less so now.

Has anyone got a view on how many points will now be needed to win the group, and get second? I haven't got the table handy but I'm thinking 21/22, and 18/19 maybe.

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If we score 20 points (drawing all remaining fixtures with our rivals and beating the lower seeds) we will finish at least second. I suspect that if we were to draw with our rivals, it will force Wales hand in Serbia, and I suspect Serbia could finish with 22.

I'm pretty sure I made this point earlier. I have no doubt Serbia will kick on now. Serbian confidence is never low, but they surely would not have been arrogant coming into this group given their recent travails, and compared to their neighbours who have been very impressive in recent campaigns. However the manner in which we allowed them back into the game in Belgrade, and their result with Austria, combined with the optimism of their World youth cup win, will surely focus them to look to qualify from a group that is eminently qualifiable from. The old line of never give a sucker a break comes to mind. they are going to be very hard to stop I think now. This is where having a derby away in the final qualifier is a kick in the teeth. Wales might be out of contention to qualify going into the last round, but they'll still want to get beat us.

For bedivilment, I have the following table going into the last round of games:

Ire 19
Ser 19
Wal 16
Aus 12
Geo 5
Mol 1

Austria woefully letting that game slip from their grasp leaves us in a great position in the group and in theory ahead of the rest in regards to holding onto top spot. I think Serbia have also woken up fully to the real possibility of qualifying direct from this group.
We're still not able to sustain an effective counter attack game, we over indulge in relentless hoofing from clearances, free kicks and kick outs.
If it was a case of us playing like that (v Austria) in order to beat a shower of scrappers like Scotland, then fair enough, but this is the type of game which will be used to try and beat Wales twice, Serbia and Georgia away. We defend well, have good well prepared set pieces and can be at most dangerous when we do use the ball in from wide.
Austria getting 3 points in Georgia doesn't matter that much now, still a fair part of the group's outcome will be about what happens with Serbia, Wales and us in Georgia.

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

who is getting carried away? having said that we are top by 2 pts with two away games against our main rivals played. very good start to the campaign

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Well me for one, or at least I was, but things can change, some time when you are doing well away from home you struggle at home.

Yes it is a god start, but it is just the start and that lead could disappear next match!!

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Originally Posted by geysir

Even in that you tube clip from the game in 1963, you can see an austrian player clearly take a dive in the box at the end, feigning a blow to the head.

They were feigning being fouled throughout the game yesterday, the 'Meyler incident' was just one of the more obvious.

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Of course the irony is it was their attempts at cheating that lead to their own undoing, so they got their just deserts!