Georgia V Ireland - Saturday, 6th September 2008 - World Cup 2010 Q - Mainz, Germany

[paulie_walnuts]

Me neither. When was the last time we won a competitive game away from home?

The last two campaigns I went to matches with hope and optomism only to come away bitterly disappointed having not enjoyed the game because we
played sh**e.

This was enjoyable - we knew what we were doing. We scored and did not panic. I though of all the times we scored and you just knew we would collapse after that and pile 10 men back in defense.

Only the last minute or two were hair raising. But this is an amazing improvement and I'm so looking forward to Wednesday.

Bar San Marino, even though we did our best to make that one competitive... Cyprus Oct 05, 1-0 win under Kerr?

[Razors left peg]

there were negatives to look at in the game but a very comfortable 3 points and I thought we looked very confident, possibly a bit too much and we eased off alot. But it looked to me like there were another few gears if needed.Great start to the campaign

[eirebhoy]

For me Stephen Reid and Kevin Doyle were excellent. I am not sure cause I was at the game but I noticed Doyle making runs time and time again, his running of the channels was top class and himself and Keane seem to have a system going on.

Yeh, you can't appreciate Doyle watching on TV. He's such a great player when you see him live. He'll be back playing in the top flight before he's 26 anyway, no doubt.

[Noelys Guitar]

Yeh, you can't appreciate Doyle watching on TV. He's such a great player when you see him live. He'll be back playing in the top flight before he's 26 anyway, no doubt.

Difficult player to mark. The header for the goal was excellent. Showed real guile to move the ball around the keeper. If he gets the service he will score against Montenegro.

[shakermaker1982]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...s-1471033.html

independent ratings here. A little OTT, 8 for Keane and Dunne?!

[boovidge]

load of tripe those ratings. It was a good performance but only kilbane deserved the 8/10.

The individual ratings seem to be based on the result, if Georgia had got a lucky defelcted equaliser the ratings would be much lower.

[eirebhoy]

Difficult player to mark.

Keane:

“After the game on Sunday, Ledley King – for me one of the best defenders in England – said Kevin was one of the toughest players he has played against this season.

“He said it’s not about when he has the ball, it’s about when he hasn’t got it, running into the channels and that makes him hard for defenders to mark.”

[Cymro]

In fairness Wales are a minnow

[irishultra]

I guess the truth hurts.

[Cymro]

Ah yes, 'the truth hurts' good way of following through on a point without actually backing it up.......

Given that we finished all of TWO points behind you in the last qualification group which we were both in, can you really level that accusation at us without taking a look at yourselves? And don't give me the 'it's all Staunton's fault' crap, he may have accounted for a couple of points gone missing due to inexperience and tactical naivety but mostly it was just because your players weren't good enough. The 5-2 defeat to Cyprus which you all rave on about - those things don't happen because of a manager getting tactics wrong, they happen because you are second best on the day. Maybe something like Slovakia away where you conceded a late goal to draw 2-2 you can blame on Staunton, but not everything.

[seanfhear]

Cymro dont pay any attention to people trying to wind you up here.
You have some good young players and all the best in the qualifers.

[SkStu]

This might be the single most absurd bunch of idiocy i have ever read.
All garbage. Jump on or jump off but dont do it midway. Every thing you stated has #1 Been disproven or too lazy to deal with..or #2 So obvious it is taken up by your Aunt Honey in Surrey in 1967.
Awful Awful Post. But, I do respect you for writing it, and i will continue to read it.
Peace.

thanks for the feedback Crosby87.

And im sorry that it wasnt up to your standards. From what i can see your only contribution of note has been to ask why McGeady falls down so much, which is one of the most burning questions of the modern era of Irish soccer. I salute you.

I will aim to deliver similarly valuable insights in the future but please bear with me while my learning curve continues...

[SUB of the day]

In fairness Wales are a minnow, and yeah the Croatia game was our last win......i know cause it was my first competitive Ireland game..

....beating Cyprus 3 0 in Lansdowne under Kerr, was the last time we started a campaign with a win, didn't qualify, late goal in Israel started the rot.Thank God we don't do that anymore

[youngirish]

Ah yes, 'the truth hurts' good way of following through on a point without actually backing it up.......

Given that we finished all of TWO points behind you in the last qualification group which we were both in, can you really level that accusation at us without taking a look at yourselves? And don't give me the 'it's all Staunton's fault' crap, he may have accounted for a couple of points gone missing due to inexperience and tactical naivety but mostly it was just because your players weren't good enough. The 5-2 defeat to Cyprus which you all rave on about - those things don't happen because of a manager getting tactics wrong, they happen because you are second best on the day. Maybe something like Slovakia away where you conceded a late goal to draw 2-2 you can blame on Staunton, but not everything.

Stauntons tactical naivety cost us well more than a couple of points in the last campaign. It cost us 2 against Slovakia, at least 2 against Cyprus (possibly 3) and Don Givens who replaced him cost us a further 2 against Wales alone which meant you finished 2 points behind us instead of 5. We are far better than Wales. We even finished ahead of you with easily one of the most clueless international managers of recent times and that alone should settle that argument.

[irishultra]

....beating Cyprus 3 0 in Lansdowne under Kerr, was the last time we started a campaign with a win, didn't qualify, late goal in Israel started the rot.Thank God we don't do that anymore

I was also there that day....shouting at the doc warming up....good lad he is, and Reid scored an amazing goal.

[paulie_walnuts]

....beating Cyprus 3 0 in Lansdowne under Kerr, was the last time we started a campaign with a win, didn't qualify, late goal in Israel started the rot.Thank God we don't do that anymore

That game completely slipped my mind, I was out gettin chips when I heard the cheer, the girl in the chip van asked who scored, obviously it was Ireland, some young lad thought he was funny and said 'Ireland, what are ya, stupid?' clown, haha. Thought we started in France, but that was a month later.

[old git]

It's been clear since 2002 that Stephen Reid was always going to be important to us. He had a couple of decent sub appearances under McCarthy (and a world cup appearance) and a storming game in Brian Kerr's first game in Scotland but he has been dogged by injuries ever since and only played a handful of games for us. We desperately need him to stay fit.

On Andy Reid I think Trapp will get to know his abilities over time but then the question is how to fit him into the system. He won't get up and down the wing like Duff, McGeady and Hunt but I think Trapp wants a solid, no nonsense centre of midfield rather than flair. I hope he can work it out.

Someone posted earlier that Robbie Keane is overrated but IMHO he is still our most important player. He was unlucky to hit the post today and other than that didn't get much of the ball (which he can't be blamed for).

When we went 1-0 up there was definitely a strategy of playing out the game like the Italians would. I think the manager had more faith in our ability to do that than the fans (he hasn't gone through the last 3 campaigns the way we have). I was really nervous for 15 or 20 minutes but the second goal did ease the nerves a bit.

A good start but we need to keep improving on the performance. Everyone did their job today - no complaints on effort from anyone. Hunt tries his heart out but needs to pass more (he can't beat them all). At times he gave the ball away but I think it was one of McGeady's best games yet.

Given the injury he got just seven days ago I think Kilbane was my personal star today.

3-points away to start - brilliant. Let's go and get 3 more on Wednesday.

Someone posted earlier that Robbie Keane is overrated but IMHO he is still our most important player. He was unlucky to hit the post today and other than that didn't get much of the ball (which he can't be blamed for).

have to disagree he is totally overated gave nothing to the team as captain lost possesion very easily and unlucky to hit post is to kind of him a world class forward would have scored it this miss could have cost us 2 points in the end

[irishultra]

He's got an amazing first touch using his chest.

[FarBeag]

thanks for the feedback Crosby87.

And im sorry that it wasnt up to your standards. From what i can see your only contribution of note has been to ask why McGeady falls down so much, which is one of the most burning questions of the modern era of Irish soccer. I salute you.

I will aim to deliver similarly valuable insights in the future but please bear with me while my learning curve continues...

Well said.Good reaction.

[Stuttgart88]

yeah, well done Stu.