No guts, no spine, no heart...

[Jon'o]

4th in the group is fairly gank guys to be fair.

yeah it is but only a matter of points between 4th and 2nd!!! how gutted are israel? finished on the same points as the swiss and have to sit and watch because they finished their games on saturday.

appart from our group there is only one other group that has scored less than 20 points to finish second

if we had of finished second would it have been ''acceptable'' to have scraped through?

[Green Tribe]

I'm too gutted to respond really at the moment.... Basically the Swiss team did not turn up, they were just pi$$ing about, we could have easily beaten them but there ya go. Again Given saved our arse in the 80th minute, but that's no use we needed to score FFS!!!!

Another tournament will be missing us, lets hope we make it to austria/switz 08 or it will be a long wait and a long trek for south africa 2010

Raging that the swiss went through, they'll get humped in a play-off. One consolation is that Israel did not get a play-off spot! Could ya imagine!

[ozvaldo]

I wouldn't have been all that happy had we scraped a goal tonight. As Gilesy said you should do the right things on the pitch all the time. The last 30 minutes of the match tonight were every bit as frustrating as the Cyprus game in terms of intelligent performance. We simply had no idea of how to break the Swiss down and resorted to long ball tactics that were absolutely appaling.
Think of any decent team in world football and how they would try to break the opposition down in the last half hour of a match. Can you see France, Italy or Spain resorting to what we tried??? Bringing on the Doc to try to ruffle them up.
Zero imagination and no ability to do the basic things right. Our passing game was almost non-existent and it seems like our wingers won't even attempt to take a defender on.
Kerr has been found it..he's tactically naive and persists with the same players even when they're not performing well. How Elliott and Finnan didnt start I'll never know. Finnan is a champions league winner for Gods sake! He's twice as good as Steve Carr. Carr used to be a class act with aggression and an ability to get down the line, he simply isn't good enough anymore. The movement off the ball was also inexcusable, no-one wanted the ball. The concept of movement to create space in other areas seems to have been lost on the management..just give it an auld hoof dere up to yung Robbie and see wha happens......I feel sick and hurt! Good luck, God bless and Good night!

[Éanna]

Don't believe it. They have a team full of 2G players - the products of other systems. There's no hiding the fact that - Kevin Doyle or no Kevin Doyle - the Irish domestic set-up is bankrupt, and it really does pain me to say so.

PP

It says everything about the "irish" set-up that you have to make that distinction- domestic. In most countries, they would speak of the whole set-up, here we have two different set-ups and they are absolutely worlds apart. The responsibility for that lies solely at the feet of the FAI. They've lived the high life on the crest of a lucky wave that Jack Charlatan and his engerland rejects XI created 17 years ago, and now they're getting what they deserve.

[Éanna]

The last 30 minutes of the match tonight were every bit as frustrating as the Cyprus game in terms of intelligent performance. We simply had no idea of how to break the Swiss down and resorted to long ball tactics that were absolutely appaling.
Think of any decent team in world football and how they would try to break the opposition down in the last half hour of a match.

Kerr has been found it..he's tactically naive

don't see how you can square those two comments off- the bottom line is that Ireland didn't have a single player capable of passing the ball intelligently in order to break down the defence- thats the problem. Kerr might not be the greatest manager, but the tactics have to be based on the players, and the players Ireland have are hoof merchants and ****-kickers, not ball players.

[davey]

It says everything about the "irish" set-up that you have to make that distinction- domestic. In most countries, they would speak of the whole set-up, here we have two different set-ups and they are absolutely worlds apart. The responsibility for that lies solely at the feet of the FAI. They've lived the high life on the crest of a lucky wave that Jack Charlatan and his engerland rejects XI created 17 years ago, and now they're getting what they deserve.

Yeah, Its all the 2gs fault

[Marked Man]

and its too early to call for kerr's head, thats just a quick reaction we need to rebuild and refocus for the euro's

How many tournament qualifiers do you want us to finish fourth in?

[ThatGuy]

"No guts, no spine, no heart... "

Absolute nonsense. The team showed plenty of guts, determination and commitment but simply aren't good enough.

Typical OTT reaction.

[crc]

I was a fan of Kerr's when he was put in, put he has to go now. There is potential in the players (see the performance in Paris, just 12 months ago). Kerr bottled it every time we had a chance. Sitting back on leads is cost us big time in this campaign. The tactics were all wrong, and I've seen most of these players play very good football, its up to the manager to get this out of them.

Why did he persist with Carr, or O'Shea, or Holland (I was hardly aware he was on the pitch), or Morrisson (who worked his socks off, but in fairness hasn't any where near the ability to be an international)?

The players that stood out (i.e. those that weren't abysmal) were Dunne and Kevin Kilbane - however in both these cases their actual performance was only mediocre, its just that everyone else was worse.

Except, naturally, for Shay Given. If it were anatomically possible, I would have his babies. He was a real hero. He kept going with an outstanding performance (as always) for his team and his country despite the fact his team-mates were all a pile of utter sh1te. Shay should be a free man of every town in Ireland. He, and he alone, can be emminently proud of what he did over the last week and indeed the last 12 months.

In the end, I'm sort of glad we didn't win. We'd only have had to bear the play-offs which we would undoubtedly lose, or we'd embarrass ourselve in Germany. Also, this catastrophe should really make people sit up and pay attention to the serious problems in Irish football.

So sad, though.

[Closed Account 2]

I feel sorry for Kerr, he seems nice and some results were good (France Away, Czech Home, Holland away) but 4th place isnt not good enough.

Its a shame coz he was great with the youth team, but he cant really go back to that now.

[ThatGuy]

If Robbie Keane didn't get injured against Israel and if Henry's goal hit the crossbar we would have won the group and people would be calling Kerr a genius.

This campaign hasn;t been a success, it has been a failure. No doubt about that.

But these things happen and Kerr is no idiot. IMO he deserves another crack unless someone like Mourinho sends his CV into the FAI.

[crc]

If Robbie Keane didn't get injured against Israel and if Henry's goal hit the crossbar we would have won the group and people would be calling Kerr a genius.
This campaign hasn;t been a success, it has been a failure. No doubt about that.
But these things happen and Kerr is no idiot. IMO he deserves another crack unless someone like Mourinho sends his CV into the FAI.

This campaign has been a failure, not just because of a few unlucky bounces of the ball; it is due to the negative tactics employed by Kerr, especially when we actually managed to take a lead in games. We failed essentially because Kerr was afraid. In Paris we had a great performance because we weren't expected to do anything, so we were able to play without the weight on our shoulders. Conversely, in any game which we were expected to do something, or had to do something, we failed miserably. We even struggled in the games against the Faroes and Cyprus, FFS!

I'm sorry to say it, but - Kerr OUT

[Gerrit]

And a few months ago there was a topic on how the Swiss would be beaten 4-0...


I was hoping for Ireland or Israel in the play-offs, but fair play and congrats to the Swiss. They're a decent side and they will get my support in the play-offs, unless if it's against my beloved Norway.

[drinkfeckarse]

Kerr has to go for me too I'm afraid. Route one only works if you have the players to do it and we don't anymore. Morrison while decent in the air is no Quinn so why did Kerr persist with that option..
The players lacked ideas and seemed bereft of any football whatsoever. Yes the players are as much to blame as the manager IMO but ultimately the buck stops with him.

Why did Kerr do like for like substitutions when it was a must win game? Yes Robbie was off the boil again but why not put Elliott on and take a defender or a midfielder off. Then he takes Morrison off for the Doc!

Either Kerr is out of his depth or the players don't respect him enough because I was expecting them to run through walls for him last night and they didn't even get close....

[BrayZil]

I'm absolutely gutted! I've never liked Kerr from the start but the only thing that will make me feel better is if the FAI grow some balls and sacks him! He hasn’t a bloody clue!

[Dublin12]

But these things happen and Kerr is no idiot. IMO he deserves another crack unless someone like Mourinho sends his CV into the FAI.

Can't see it happening,his tactics are woeful at this level,how carr stayed on that pitch in place of Finnan last night was beyond me,why didn't he try 3 forwards instead of throwing on a centre half up front in place of Morrisson,S.Reid should've been on earlier too.

[Countyman]

"No guts, no spine, no heart... "

Absolute nonsense. The team showed plenty of guts, determination and commitment but simply aren't good enough.

Typical OTT reaction.

spot on. thats what it boils down to. We just do not have the quality at the moment. Although we could have made it but for the collapse against israel at lansdowne. Kerr and some of the players were responsible for that.

To listen to some of the muppets coming out of lansdowne made me sick.
Clinton Morrison this, robbie keane that..****ing useless ****** etc etc.

Seriously how do clowns like that get tickets? We getting like the english in our bile being thrown at guys in green shirts.

Its not the irish way.

[CollegeTillIDie]

We are technically not good enough. One footed players who cannot pass accurately on a consistent basis. I blame a slavish adherence over generations to the Anglocentric style of playing football without many of the positive aspects of their play.

[Tired&Emotional]

"No guts, no spine, no heart... "

Absolute nonsense. The team showed plenty of guts, determination and commitment but simply aren't good enough.

Typical OTT reaction.

I'd have to agree....

[OwlsFan]

The responsibility for that lies solely at the feet of the FAI. They've lived the high life on the crest of a lucky wave that Jack Charlatan and his engerland rejects XI created 17 years ago, and now they're getting what they deserve.

Bonner, Brady, Moran, McGrath, Whelan, Stapleton, Keane, Staunton etc English rejects ? Lucky to finish top of a qualifying group with more points than anyone else for the only time in Irish football history ? I think not. Points on the board are what counts.

Was very disappointed with Kerr's selection and tactics.

Picking John O'Shea who had been a disaster at full back to play in the middle where accurate passing is vital It was a defensive move in a game we had to win.

What is the point on bringing on the Doc with 5 minutes to go? Since we had been playing the long ball game and badly at that because we didn't have the midfielders to pass the ball, surely he should have come on with a half an hour to go. If you're going to play long ball, have someone up front who can win a ball in the air for Robbie to feed off like Japan 2002.

Richard Dunne taking the free kicks to lob into the box when he should have been in the box. I saw him asking permission to go forward on a number of occasions and was denied by Brian Kerr. Only very late in the game was he allowed go in for the free kicks.

One of the worst home performances since 0-0 with Iceland. Plenty effort but no guile whatsoever. I had great hopes for Andy Reid but he seems to be going backwards.

First time that we've not finished in the top 2 in a World Cup qualifying campaign since 1986.

Back to living on the memories