Everything that's been said about Ogbene is true, but I think it's worth noting that he looked much more of a threat when he came over to the left for a brief cameo.
can't agree with the ogbene hate. he gave away that stupid free kick but otherwise i thought the Hungarians looked terrified of his pace which thankfully he still has.
their whole back line sat in even deeper after he came on and it was just a siege from then on.
he won a few duels in the box but nothing came of any of them - something to work on there.
A small thing, but relevant to situational awarness imo, Idah running un to the corner to celebrate after the equaliser when you want to chase a winner with a handfull of minutes left. Grab the ball, back on the centre circle and ready to go again straight away. Senior players did pull him to get back but it could have run the clock down a fair bit when looking for a win late on. Maybe its nitpicking but I think there is a little bit lacking in concentration, awareness around game management, and even heading to celebrate when really you just want to get on with things when the opposition is just hanging on. As fo only playing when we go behind and there is nothing to lose o have to go for it, its like the pressure still is worn heavy. I really though VAR was there to stop things like jerseys being pulled over players heads i the box by defenders, I dont think that incident with Collins was 6 of 1, he tried to play and get on the cross with the jersey almost pulled off him. 8 subs(?) and a whole lot of stoppages and time wasting seemed longer than 6 minutes but maybe that was just my frustration.
i think he (Idah) just really likes scoring goals. it's his thing. he reminds me a bit of andy cole.
Last edited by zero; 06/09/2025 at 9:24 PM.
I think his drifting in to the back post and being a nuisance in the air created that bit of space for a few chances that could have ping in off someone on another evening, made him a decent change at the time. There were a few silly fouls, O'Brien putting a hand on the back of the defender at left full when he was struggling to not concede a corner was basic stuff from an experienced player.Originally Posted by zero
I asked it earlier, and I was serious.. where were the ball boys?
Were there any there tonight.. Hungary were allowed waste loads of time just getting balls back
Overall.. we're decent.. just decent. Don't think Hungary are much better than us, if any way at all.
Id love it too but Id want to have a pop at another too. Its a bit 'all about me' rather than getting back at it fo the team. Ok maybe he feels he has something to prove after not being rated at Celtic but still.
Steady on now
Was talking about that in the ground - there weren't any. Very strange; no idea why that was
Retro Irish hectic football with ball after ball being pumped into the box , trying to get something out of the chaos, managed it in the end with Idah of all players moving into a wide space and getting an expertly driven header on the ball.
No Heimar Icelandic team ever played like that so I guess he must have gone native. I thought he was slow to throw the kitchen sink against this Hungarian team, an ugly sister of Bulgaria, the subs should have come on much earlier. Should it come to a showdown in Budapest for 2nd place, as it stands now I'd be okay with that.
Ha! I'm allowed after that I think
But genuinely - what else have we?
As bad a first half as I've ever witnessed from an Ireland team, and as positive a second half as I've ever seen.
Real Jekyll and Hyde stuff.
Doherty at fault for both goals really.
Red was fully deserved from where I was in the ground, but haven't seen replays.
We probably deserved a winner out of that. But on the balance of 45 minutes vs 45 minutes a draw was fair.
Heimir has to take a degree of credit for the turnaround after the half, but he got the first half so so wrong.
Really have to hope we can get two wins out of Armenia and hope that Hungary take nothing from Portugal, but we have an uphill battle from here realistically, and you could sense that feeling from the players at full time too.
Another thing that ragged me was the amount of Hungarian fans in among the home support. Small fry really, but it was a bit annoying.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Thought azaz played well, as did Kelleher and Manning (to an extent). Don't know what smodzic brings,and Doherty is a farce at this stage.
Still in it but need 6 points against armenia to have even the remotest chance.
Away in Paris in 2009.
Getting a point off of the world champions in Germany and beating them at home.
The match in Cardiff with the James McClean goal.
The Bosnia playoff.
The first 45 against Sweden at the Euros.
The first 45 against France at the Euros.
The away performance against Austria in the 2018 qualifiers.
And then nothing for the last seven years.
And then today.
I would even argue that in most of those examples better football was played than the exciting chaos we saw in the second half today.
Thought Azaz was ****e. Especially when under pressure in attacking areas. Csn see why PL teams stayed well clear
Thought oshea and Collins were poor defensively and did there usual not getting headers in target in opposition box. Doherty was his usual nonsense self for Ireland.
Reality is Hungarian keeper made 1 save from azaz header. Thought we were a shambles and even down to 10 men they cut through us a few times
I agree with this,and I was well ****ed off with it - players running to celebrate equaliser when there was still time to win . But that weak pisa poor mindset is all through this team
Hungary get a player sent off so our players need to do nothing but what happens? Cullen and others start getting all excited and involved and he gets a yellow...what was the ****ing point in that.
3 or four times in 1st half our players when they can't win headers just lazily jump into back of player and give away free kick - giving them an easy out
I kind of feel like we might be almost back to where we were around 2019. That is, sticking in there long enough that we can stay involved in a group until the last game and then not qualify from it.
It's depressing that that counts as progress, but the reality is that it is. Only if we win in Armenia of course.
On a separate note I watched Scotland last night. Now, granted they have a much better midfield than us, but the core of their defence was three players who wouldn't even make our 23 man squad - Angus Gunn, John Souttar and Grant Hanley. And they held the Danes to a 0-0 in Copenhagen. Basically just throwing limbs at the ball Shane Duffy style to keep it out.
I don't know how we get back to a position where we have that level of defensive fight in us. On paper we have better players at centre back, but they're not showing it. They're playing like we used to, and we're playing like they used to before Steve Clarke took them over and got them into shape. They probably won't make the World Cup, but they're closer to where they want to be than we are right now.
That's not accurate really, he also saved a shot from Ferguson and he saved Manning's free kick that was going in the bottom corner. O'Shea had a great chance for a header late on that he should have scored.
That manning free kick was going well wide. Fair enough re Ferguson although save was very standard - EVAN did well to create chance.
We didn't work their keeper anyway enough and he looked poor - e.g manning 1st free kick for Evans goal he made complete balls off
I actually think someone like Mike Maignan might have saved that Idah header, the Hungarian keeper wasn't far off it and, as others are correctly pointing out, he was crap.
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