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

Austria were rank bad (particularly for a 10-minute spell after we scored) and plenty has been rightly said about poor Marc Janko.

But we're getting into quite a nice habit of beating better ranked/better quality opposition in high-pressure situations after years of chronic failure on that front. That can only point to a team improving their mental attitude, composure and approach at long last. Long may it continue.

Despite it being 1-0, Saturday felt very comfortable to watch. Perhaps Bosnia at home is the only other time in recent memory where we just seemed to exude a winning confidence.

I think someone earlier did mention it's the first time since Euro '96 we've led a group into Christmas...not a great omen, but still...

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

here we go again... as sure as night follows day someone will follow a very decent Irish win and performance with mitigating factors for the opposition. yes Austria didn't have a great game but i thought a lot of that was how we approached the game particularly after the Meyler substitution. i would attribute our wins in the last 12 months against germany, bosnia, italy and now austria to improved dice rolling skills, as you put it yourself, rather than luck. credit where its due please

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I agree with you but let's be honest, in the past that 94th minute chance would have been put away. This time the fates were on our side and we rolled the two 6s.

What I liked about the performance was that despite going ahead in the early part of the second half, we didn't immediately fall back on our box and engage in desperate defending. We only left that to the 94th minute :) As you say, we have at last started to beat higher ranked teams (outside of tournaments) which is a huge bonus for us. I am not sure Austria are as bad as people make out. We had a game plan. Stifle Alaba which we failed to do last time we played them, and hit them on the break. Worked very well. Sure the Wales/Serbia game might have been more attractive to watch, but each team let the other play to a certain extent unlike our tactics which are get in your face and stay there and rely on Wes for the odd moment of magic. I am more than happy with that.

I think we have only once ever topped a group (1987/8) so tons of work to do. It would be great if Wales were out of it by the time we go to Cardiff and we can go a long way to doing that next match. In the meantime I continue to savour the pleasure of hearing that final whistle in Vienna and seeing the Viennese with their flags tucked under their armpits sulking off to catch the next U Bahn over the Danube.

If it was that easy to beat teams that are there for the taking away from home we wouldn't be asking whether this is better than 1987 or not. This was a gig win, no question. Missed opportunities in Bulgaria, Slovakia and Israel stand out and in every campaign in my lifetime bar 1987 we have failed to beat teams like Austria. 29 years is a lot of dice rolling and frankly our return against this type of team has been pathetic.

I just read Owls' post. I've lost count of the number of times I watch teams who get away with conceding a late chance and then get plaudits for a professional performance. It happens. I'm tired of conceding last ditch goals like Austria 2-2, Slovakia 2-2, Israel 1-1 that were superbly struck, deflected or both. We rode our luck with Janko but deserved it overall.

Didn't Groucho Marx say that he wouldn't want to join a club that'd have him as a member? It's like that with Ireland matches for some people. Sure, anyone we beat can't be any good.

Is that it now ? Any more after thoughts ? :)

We're pretty much agreed. In some quarters, we get a result so the opposition were cr+p.

We went to Vienna. Stiffled a higher ranked team on its own turf and came home with a win from a nicely worked goal and then defended well for all but 30 seconds of the the next 40 minutes. As far as I am concerned it is "Allah be Praised" rather than "Allah they were rubbish".

I'm relieved that the horror stories about us not being able to score goals after Keane's retirement haven't materialised.

Good mix of players scoring and 20 Intl goals looks like an attainable target for McClean atm.

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Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks

I'm relieved that the horror stories about us not being able to score goals after Keane's retirement haven't materialised.

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Hmmmmm

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

Hmmmmm

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No, I think it's a valid thing to bring up. There was a worry from certain quarters about where goals were going to come from in this campaign. Even going back to the last Campaign, Brady, Long and Walters stepped up. The spread has continued into this campaign.

It's good to see.

I would normally be middle of the road not swayed by a good performance or win as easy as others on here. I would see the glass as somewhere between half full and half empty, as its never exact. But I have noticed that we have been getting that bit of luck that others pointed out a few years ago was made. I still don't fully agree, but I definitely think O'Neill has that luck about him that certain managers get at the right time. Having said all that I still think we are getting better and we are begining to ride our luck a bit because of how we are generally playing. We are playing better, and we were a lot more chartlonesque/guardiolaesque in our defending the last day, so sometimes with that enthusiasm you can leave space and be punished, and thats where I think we have got our luck. We have played a better pressurised game that has ridden its luck when it needed to. We are beating teams that normally we wouldn't beat away or home. Things are definitely looking up. And to draw/criqique on the previous manager we don't cruise by where a team could have beaten us 2 or 3 on a good day.

At least with these wins, it gives us a good ranking(not seeding) for the playoffs if we make them.

One thing I forgot to mention was the derision of Brady for hitting the ball away. He had to do it, he was out of position and would have been caught on a counter with a quick throw. It was smart, maybe he could have been smarter by just holding the ball in his hands but he needed to do something. I don't think this was clear on the TV, an austrian attacker had taken up a position on the wing behind him and no one was near him. Brady did what any smart defender would do and held up play.

JOS right on the mark re: Brady's booking. Someone pointed that out during the coverage but I forget who.

JOS? what did they say?

Also wanted to add we shouldn't get too carried away either because things can change very quickly as we even saw in the last campaign.

What I don't want to hear from now on though is that we dont have the player to compete at this level and be expecting to qualify every campaign. MON has shown that you can, and that its down to a bit of self-belief, camraderie and a decent playing level. NEver, ever do i want to see the likes of a Trap again managing us or people on here or in the media trying to underplay our fair expectations. We have a far worse team than we had under Kerr, Staunton and Trap, yet we have performed much better and gotten much better results than under any of them. We have more championship players than we've had in a squad for a long time too, but its not affecting our performances adversely.

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Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks

JOS right on the mark re: Brady's booking. Someone pointed that out during the coverage but I forget who.

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I can't remember what his first booking was for or even the game. MO'N says Brady wasn't even aware that he had an earlier booking. If it was in the Georgian game I might understand that as he was taken off concussed. Wes should be able to step in to take the frees and corners.

I meant to say POS not JOS.

And whoever said it (Liam Brady?) Said he was slowing down play, preventing Austria from making a move and taking a fast throw when he was out of position.

I doubt there's anybody who didn't spot he was trying to prevent a quick throw/free (whichever it was). The point is he a) should have known he was on a booking and b) should have been a lot smarter about how he wasted time so he didn't get booked.

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

I can't remember what his first booking was for or even the game. MO'N says Brady wasn't even aware that he had an earlier booking. If it was in the Georgian game I might understand that as he was taken off concussed. Wes should be able to step in to take the frees and corners.

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It was against Serbia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_F...p_D#Discipline

According to the live blog on rte.ie it was for something similar - https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2016...ic-of-ireland/

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58 mins Robbie Brady is shown a yellow card for kicking the ball away in frustration after appearing to injure his shoulder in a collision with a Serbian midfielder.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

I doubt there's anybody who didn't spot he was trying to prevent a quick throw/free (whichever it was). The point is he a) should have known he was on a booking and b) should have been a lot smarter about how he wasted time so he didn't get booked.

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I read in a few places and I thought I saw it on here that he was kind of petulant and it was a stupid thing to do. Perhaps even a lack of experience. It was wholeheartedly the right thing to do, he could just have been cuter. 3 points over 1 v 1 player supspended for the next game. Give me the 3 points all day. But as I said he could have picked the ball up and walked back maybe then looped it in the air.

O'Neill was also saying it was a stupid booking. It was one for the team, similar to how Dundalk let Legia get the 2nd in the Aviva, take one for the team.

Sure I remember when I commented on Hendrick making what I thought was a silly challenge in our half against France to incur a booking, Charlie mitigated it saying (Hendrick) was carrying a knock when it happened.

It's not like Brady was on a second yellow. He is going to have to miss a game eventually. Doesn't matter which one it is - unless he timed it perfectly to miss the Moldova game.

What better mitigating circumstance than to prevent a break away, reorganise and get back into position while defending a one goal lead?

Ward will be back for Wales and Walters can go back to a wide position to allow Long to go up front.

Will miss his set pieces, but I thought the best corner delivery actually came from Arter.

On Brady, there's a thin line between cute and clumsy here. Cute players don't get booked and two yellows for the same thing suggest he has a way to go.

Having said that, I'd be more than happy for us to develop a solid cynical streak.

Hendrick was booked twice in the Euros for silly things too. Sounds like St Kevin's Boys have a discipline problem.