The match against San Marino wasn’t much of a game due mainly to the opposition. It was meaningless as a contest really. San Marino really were so poor that you couldn’t draw any conclusions from it but Ireland got the job done I suppose.
It was the last game at Lansdowne Road as it is, planning permission allowing, and there was little sense of occasion but I think the opposition was the killer. I didn’t feel very much, John Giles said he didn’t feel very sad as did Roy Keane in the paper so it was an anti-climax I suppose.
After the game, Staunton turned our focus to Germany’s draw away to Cyprus but I still don’t believe we have any hope. That’s manager speak and in my opinion, regardless of our draw with the Czechs and first win of the campaign and Germany dropping points, I don’t think we’ve got a chance.
On a brighter note, it was good to see Robbie Keane getting his hat-trick. I like Robbie and I think he gets a hard time from his critics, so I was pleased about that.
As for other players on the night, again, due to the opposition, no one was really tested. It doesn’t do much good for players to play teams that poor. They’re on a hiding to nothing. Everybody, the players, manager – all on a hiding to nothing really and teams like San Marino shouldn’t be in the competition.
The Welsh match will be the next serious test, then Slovakia and they’re the matches Staunton will be given an opportunity to prove himself. For the moment, the performance against the Czech Republic got him off the hook but the jury will remain out until the end of the group. We’ve got to play Wales twice, Slovakia twice, Germany at home, the Czechs away… these are the serious matches.
Staunton now has a couple of months to asses where he’s at and maybe look at a few players. I mean he hasn’t seen Anthony Stokes yet which is a shocking admission really. He’s top scorer in the Scottish Premier League! Staunton talks about cultivating young players and here’s a very good young player doing amazing stuff for Falkirk so he should have seen him by now. Young Elliott could have got a run the other night also, Roy Keane complained about that and rightly so.
He now has a couple of months when he can reflect on his own performance as manager, his dealings with the media, some of his decisions – Stokes, the way he handled Lee Carsley when he wasn’t in the squad to go to Cyprus but now he’s a starting player. He has to look at these kinds of things.
He’s had a tough learning curve but being an international team manager is a tough job!
With the break he has some space now. The next match is against San Marino in February and that’s a walkover so he has between now and the Welsh match at the end of February to reflect on what he’s learnt and get his act together.
