Lads we are going to qualify..................I have a feeling..thank god i sent away the app for euro 2008 tickets..we will win all of our remaining games(uber bold statement)
Wasnt our last major away win in 1988 in Scotland??? Now i gotta believe we will be doing very well to get 2 draws in the two games in September. People should understand that the Slovaks will be a totally different prospect at home. they have an excellent record at home despite their result against the czechs. I would gladfully take 4 points from the games but i really really cant see it happening. Id also be very sceptical about beating the Germands at home too. I sound very sceptical but we got to be reaslitic. I know the cyprus result was beyond dreadful but we really slipped up by not beating the Czechs...which we really should have done
Our last major away win yous are all forgetting was much more recent. San Marino in February.
Remember that Stan said they'll cause lots of problems for all the teams left to play them in the group. A major force in world football he reckoned.
Far better than Scotland in 87 anyway.
If we'd held on I'd have put Israel away as a very creditable away win. Very cruciual psychologically as it'd have put to bed any stories about not being able to win away.
In fairness to Mick, the away win in Estonia was a decent away win, with Keane absent.
You can dress up the question however you want, but we haven't had a better away win than Scotland since then. And that was Scotland - hardly a Germany or Italy or Spain. If only O'Shea's late volley in Paris was just a bit straighter or the ref had seen Barthez' elbow to Andy O'Brien...
The 4-0 win away to Cyprus in 2001 was a good result.
Forgot, that wasnt Ireland, it was Cyprus 0, Roy Keane 4.
4-2 in Rekyavik in 97, again Keano got two.![]()
Games we drew but should have won ;
1-1 Wembley 91
2-2 Amsterdam 2000
1-1 Macedonia 1999
3-3 Poland 91 ("A draw is better than a win" - Jack)
I think you can add France a couple of years ago at the stade De France. We totally outplayed them
Yawn. What has that to do with anything? We might have won in Iran if he could have been bothered to travel.
There is no doubt that Scotland away was the last major win and hence the talk of qualifying is wildly optimistic. However, the positive view is that we're due one after 20 years and after all the stick Stan has been getting, these sort of things happen. Football can be like that. Realistically, we may be stuffed in both games but having followed football for many years, I know just about anything can happen.
Hope is what keeps us all going until we're kicked in the gut yet again and start off all optimistic again for the next campaign.
The best away performance I remember was Estonia. Controlled the game comfortably and the result was never in doubt. Also the 0-4 in Norn Iron was excellent as well. We were lucky for the 0-1 in Scotland. The quick free kick that led to the goal wasn't taken from the right spot.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
I think there's a sign up above the manager's desk in Merrion Square saying "Win at home, draw away" given the last 4 managers' obsession with this rubbish. Even Kevin Doyle said it after the Slovakia game.
Well here's news Kevin, Stan and the rest of you. We lost in Germany, lost in Cyprus, drew at home to the Czechs. We NEED to compensate for these lost points and it's foolhardy to expect 3 pioints from Germany in Dublin.
Despite his relatively upbeat response ("win at home, draw away..."), deep down I'd bet Kerr was seething at the late concession of an equaliser in Israel. Mick can be forgiven to an extent as at least he did actually qualify for something, but Croatia away (injury time Suker goal) sickened me because it was there for the taking if we'd only had the moral courage to give them a proper game.
I accept that anything you can get at all from a quality team away from home is a bonus, but against the third seeded teams downwards (and many of the second seeded teams), you simply have to go away and engage the home team in a game. If you're good enough you've every chance of getting the points.
If the game turns out to be a hard slog and you're on the back foot because of inferiority then it's OK to say a draw is a good result.
Thought we were actually poor enough in the second half against the north that night.
Other credible away wins have to include Albania 93 (came from a goal down) and the Lithuania/Latvia double header a couple of months later -fixtures where everyone else slipped up to some degree or other.
We also had a perfectly good goal (aldo) disallowed late on away to Spain the previous autumn. Even the Spanish football papers agreed and said we deserved the win.
" I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again: "Why do they come to me to die?"
Yep, the dreaded good away goals that have been disallowed. I remember Bulgaria, France (1978 I think or possibly 76), Spain (mentioned above). Must be others.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Surely the perfectly good goal against Belgium in 81 away that was disallowed (think it was Stapleton) that cost us qualification for the 82 World Cup and delayed our progression to the position of one of the elite footballing powers in Europe by another six years (a position we still occupy to this day) was the most costly of all by a distance.
That last bit about us being footballing powers was a lie btw.
What's most interesting about that quote eirebhoy is that it proves footballers shouldn't attempt complex mathematical problems (addition). 4 points is never going to be enough bar Wales or Cyprus performing a miracle against the Czechs.
Last edited by youngirish; 12/04/2007 at 3:43 PM.
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