Ireland manager Brian Kerr has revealed that he is disenchanted with the Unity Cup tournament. Kerr has hit out at the sparse crowd and the poor state of the pitch at Charlton Athletic, insisting that the situation has left his players 'demotivated'.
A relatively inexperience Ireland side lost their opening game of the tournament 3-0 to Nigeria, and they take on Jamaica tomorrow evening, however Kerr is clearly unhappy with the organisation of the tournament.
"The pitch is dire and the groundsman told me there have been 29 corporate matches on it since the season finished," Kerr told The Star newspaper.
"There was even a Gaelic football match on it before we played on Sunday – it's just really poor. When we walked out for our warm up that game was on, which was frustrating."
"We don't have control of the pitch and we arrived here on Thursday night from Lansdowne Road where the pitch was in pristine condition in front of nearly 43,000 people," he added.
Kerr also pointed to the poor attendances as one of the reason he feels let-down by the tournament set-up. Less than 7,500 people turned out to watch Ireland lose 3-0, and the Irish boss believes it affected his players.
"The whole package wasn't right with the pitch being awful and so many empty seats around the ground. It was so different to what we are used to, even in Poland, where there was a great atmosphere. The place was packed and an effort was made."
Filed by Rob Wright
