Totally agree on the squad part...I caught a glimpse of Bazunu after the the final whistle and he looked like he'd just won the euro millions. Every one of them is going back to their clubs hoping to prove themselves and fight for a place in March.
Out best managers created that mindset, our worst, including Trap, did the opposite
Originally Posted by rebelmusic
100% on Trap.
I played (Gaelic) under certain managers and you knew they had their favourites and they had others they didn't really care about. Trap was like that.
I'm not sure any of the players don't think HH thinks highly of them.
Jim Gavin did the same with the Dubs. None of those players took it for granted and were made very aware of how lucky they were to play for Dublin and for each other. Very good man-management.
Folding my way into the big money!!!
I think the way he dropped and then recalled Molumby set a precendent that you have to perform to stay in the squad, but that there will be opportunities to get back and it's up to the players to take them.
I think that had a positive impact on Molumby, and i think decisions like that have have a positive impact on the squad overall.
e.g. I'm not sure some of our previous managers would have picked Festy over a Premier League players like Doherty, regardless of how he played for us. At times the inexperience of Festy is obvious, but it's far preferable to the dross Doherty was offering up
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
In fairness to HH, all the issues he diagnosed when he came onboard we've seen a lot of growth over the campaign. To name a couple
The 'shirt is heavy': It really was in the first two games. By Lisbon there was really significant change and whatever you want to say about Amenia in Dublin, we kept a clean sheet and we won. They reverted to type in Yerevan and I think finally took responsibility.
We need more bast****: 3 red cards in a campaign and two of those at least were a result of the Irish players getting under the skin of the opposition. We haven't seen that since Jack's day really.
People aren't fighting for places: The 23 man squad logic ended up being really shrewd tactics. Festy having his Twitter meltdown. Molumby being ****ed off. Coleman being ****ed off. Doherty finally being dropped That's what we've needed for years.
I could go on an on but HH has been like a politician that actually keeps his campaign promises. Suffice it to say, I'm a huge fan at this point and even if we bottle it in the playoffs he deserves another campaign
Not sure where to put this, but has there been a weirder qualifying campaign? (And maybe even for other countries, not just an Irish qualifying campaign!)
First game - we were dead and buried after 15 minutes. 2-0 down to Hungary at home, and qualifying hopes were already over. The campaign looked like being the same as Kenny's campaigns. After all, if Hungary were steamrollering us at home, we had no chance away. But the second half was a completely different beast - the red card helped of course, but we got Hungary under intense pressure and finally equalised in the last minute
Second game - completely outplayed by Armenia. Up there with Kenny's worst performances, and you wouldn't have begrudged Armenia their VAR-disallowed third
Third game - attackers v defenders in Lisbon. 30 shots v 2. But we saved a penalty and were within minutes of an utterly unlikely draw
Fourth game - more drivel against Armenia, this time at home. The Armenian guy who headbutted Molumby (was it?) saved our campaign. We were great after that, and their keeper made some top saves.
Fifth game - outplayed Portugal, a month after struggling for long patches against Armenia. Our greatest qualifying performance ever? Well, for four days anyway. And Ronaldo's first Portugal red card into the bargain
Sixth game - 3-2 v Hungary.
To get all those highs and lows into one campaign is wildly improbable. Don't recall anything like it.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 17/11/2025 at 1:52 PM.
It really was. Total rollercoaster...the emotions were hard to manage!
1. Disappointed relief
2. Despair
3. Bittersweet / Proud Heartbreak
4. Angry relief
5. Joy
6. Ecstasy
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
Genuinely, if we don't concede against Portugal in the last minute, we would be tied with Portugal in first place. Or if we beat Armenia, we do the same thing. If we could combine two draws, we top the group outright.
It was such a brilliant campaign and yet arguably we threw away 6 points (2 home v Hungary where we were chasing the game v 10 men, 1 away to Portugal in the 92nd min, 3 away to Armenia)
I see both sides of the Kenny v HH thing, but if Kenny had Caomhin at this age and level in his career and say Troy at this point in his career, it would be a totally different story. Switch Kelleher for Bazunu or Travers alone, and we don't get close to qualification.
Biggest mistakes HH made had to do with squad size and squad choice. Leaving out Coleman for Dunne for the Armenia camp was madness, we needed a leader and he was on a couch in Liverpool. Picking Phillips ahead of Molumby was also mental. Not rotating players enough after a gruelling game against the Hungarians and a 10 hour flight followed by another game 68 hours after the first. I do think against Portugal if he leaves Coleman on the pitch for the last few mins we get the draw, instead of moving O'Brien from wide and moving Egan in. No need to change that back 3 when we were so comfortable.
Saying that, it generally feels like they've learnt from their mistakes and they've generally made decent footballing decisions.
I won't re-litigate the Kenny conversation. It's been done and there's too many variables for a a conclusive outcome.
Don't disagree with a lot of your points but I think the 23 man squad proved to be fairly inspired as for the first time in a decade players were throwing absolute strops for being dropped and it created a 'no position is safe'
mindset.
The Molumby that played before he was dropped and the Molumby that showed up afterwards backs this up.
The Coleman thing - a lot of us were seeing the logic at the time and for me the recall was more to do with Collins not rising to the occasion than anything else. Hindsight is fine sight and all that.
Armenia's not a 10-hour flight away. 10 return flight maybe. I'm always reluctant to read too much into the effects of a flight though. Professional footballer sits down for five hours two days before a match.
I think it's also a stretch to say we threw away two points against Hungary at home - it's hard to ever say that about a game where you're 2-0 down after 15 minutes, and your keeper has to be at his best to stop it being 3-0 before half-time.
But HH has certainly made some strange decisions. Leaving Manning out of a squad, then calling him up 48 hours before a match and starting him was another. But for all that, he's only had one bad competitive result/performance combination, and that was in Armenia. That counts four wins out of four in winnable Nations League games.
The dropping of players is an interesting one too. Doherty and Molumby both got the treatment - and maybe Scales too post England? Given their performances in this window, it might be worth dropping Idah and/or Festy from the March games to see if it has the same effect.
What has Festy done to deserve that? He gave away a few stupid free kicks late on against Hungary but that hardly merits being dropped!
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
He was dreadful in the two games this window
Treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen. Ruthless but necessary - no player is bigger than the overall mission (defending the World Cup in 2030!).
I've seen a lot of criticism for Festy and he was fairly useless in the Portugal game. In the Hungary game I don't think the pressure he brought can be underestimated. I would credit him more than most of the team with putting Hungary into panic mode in the last 10 minutes as they began to overly protect the left wing.
He had a couple of movements in particular where he wrong footed the Hungarian and brought the whole Irish team forward. From there it was pretty much a non stop assault. His off the ball play had a huge impact
agree with this. I watched the last 15 mins again last night and he made a nuisance of himself, turning his man brilliantly on a least one occasion, forcing corners and throw ins up the pitch and seriously added to the panic in the Hungarian team for that period.
Paul Kimmage is worth a listen on a recent Irish Indo Sport podcast about Irish rowing. Brutal culture.
I think Festy felt hard done by in not starting against Portugal as he was named MOTM in the Armenia game. He is known to be temperamental so maybe mentally that affected him and the level of his performances. But he wasn’t dreadful and objectively, and not that anybody frankly cares in the aftermath, he wasn’t alone in that we had several sub-par performances. For example, Azaz was poor in both games. Obviously, the move into a more central position against Hungary impacted on the result, but I’d have taken him off at half-time (luckily HH did not). Jack Taylor didn’t have a great international window, Molumby can do better, and arguably the whole backline were poor against Hungary. Not sure we can drop them all however.
He got a lot of the ball in the last 10 minutes or so. That was because he was showing for the ball and running his nuts off getting up and down the right wing (at a time when those fresh legs were vital). The way he conceeded a few frees was naive but he'll learn from the experience.
For me the most pleasing thing was that bravery to keep showing for the ball and get involved. There's a touch of James McClean about the way he plays at times. He's able to compensate for some of the attributes he lacks with boundless enthusiasm.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
Posting Permissions
Quote
Bookmarks