Qualifying campaign - 4 wins 6 draws

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Originally Posted by DeNiro

Don't remember that! Which game v the Swiss was it?

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Home game that we had to win - last game in the group. Harte missed a simple header with the goal gaping very early on in the game. Finished 0-0.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Home game that we had to win - last game in the group. Harte missed a simple header with the goal gaping very early on in the game. Finished 0-0.

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Considering the magnitude of the game, the performance and atmosphere that night was rubbish. To me it was obvious a change was needed, Kerr looked to have lost the team, ironically this was a factor in the reason to bring in someone like Stan!!!
We needed to win and realistically never looked like it and if anything Frei was one on one with Shay in the last min and shouldve scored.

Bringing off Keane and Morrison for Doherty and Connolly, while keeping Carr and Holland on the pitch was baffling to me that night. Surely going 3-4-3, or even 2-4-4 in the last few minutes would have been better than playing out the game with a 4-4-2 that clearly wasn't going to create anything? We may as well have lost 8-0 as drawn. We needed a win and Kerr's tactics, and substitutions showed he didn't know how to go for it.

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Originally Posted by SuperDave

Kerr was hamstrung in his first campaign starting with 0 points from 2 games, lest you forget.

and mccarthy's team were 2nd seeds in 98 and 00 and 3rd seeds in 02, so he exceeded expectations once

kerr's team were first seeds for 2004, but with the start he had, what hope had he? if we had won at home to the swiss and drawn away to russia, we would have won the group.... surely you aren't blaming kerr for the results under mccarthy?

admittedly the record for 06 was poor but by that stage we were third seeds.

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If we had won at home to the Swiss and drawn away to Russia Kerr wouldn't have been in the job.

We still got to a position of needing to win our last 2 games to top the group by beating the minnows and failed miserabley. Let's not forget that we only gained 1 point from the reverse fixtures that we'd lost the first two games in. It was obviously a disadvantage that we'd lost the first two games but our failure to even make a fist of closing out the group was down to Kerr. The 2-0 defeat away to the Swiss with a play off place up for grabs remains one of the most shameful away performances of the modern era in a competitive game.

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Originally Posted by DeNiro

Don't remember that! Which game v the Swiss was it?

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Lansdowne Road, 0-0 ! Missed a free header from a corner 2 yards out. Switzerland 4/6 to either draw or win, I won €40 to fund the drowning of sorrows.