There may be little at stake when Ireland entertain Greece in Friday night's Euro 2024 qualifying clash at the Aviva Stadium, however, Matt Doherty has plenty of incentive to secure a morale-boosting win for Stephen Kenny’s side.
The likelihood within Group B is that neither Ireland nor Greece will secure one of the two qualifying places for next summer’s tournament in Germany, however, Gus Poyet’s visiting unit have the safety blanket of a play-off place courtesy of their most recent Nations League campaign.
No such luxury for the Irish, however, as Kenny’s side are currently outside the play-off places and would need several results around Europe to go their way over the next couple of months.
Which all leaves little to play for as the two teams meet at Lansdowne Road on Friday in the first of this week’s double header, with Ireland travelling to the Algarve to take on Gibraltar on Monday.
Doherty, however, has a score to settle following the firey 2-1 defeat to Gus Poyet’s side in June, where the Wolves defender received his marching orders in the final moments.
"Obviously the red card was soft," said Doherty, speaking at Tuesday’s press conference in Dublin. "I took the punishment on the chin.
"It cost me Gibraltar. It cost me France away, games I needed. There’s no hiding. I’m going into the game, motivated as always, but in the back of my head the thoughts of what happened over there and the thoughts of the behaviour that we felt towards us from some of them, yeah there’s definitely a bit of added motivation there.
Asked to elaborate regarding the Greek "behaviour", Doherty added: "Just like the way we felt they were acting during the game. Look, we’ll be ready. We’ll be good to go on Friday night."
James McClean’s imminent retirement from international football, was not a sign that the players had given up on their hopes of making it to Euro 2024, according to Doherty, and in fact, the Dubliner believes that the mood has not changed in the squad as they hold out hope for a play-off for next summer’s showpiece.
"The mood is very good, it always is," said Doherty. "We come into camp hoping to get the best result possible. It doesn’t always go our way, that is international football, it is not going to be easy.
"We are not coming in sad or depressed. We are always coming in hoping to do the best we possibly can.
"James retiring is his decision. He has had a long, amazing career for Ireland. I’m not sure if that [missing Euro 2024] was his thinking. That has not come up in conversation.
"We want to win every game we play. We want to finish well. We want to win the last three games; we want to win every game possible. Obviously, it doesn’t always happen, but that is always the gameplan."
Looking back at another failed qualifying campaign, Doherty feels that overall the peformances have been consistent with plenty of quality, other than the disappointing away day in the Greek capital.
"We are playing well. Greece away was the only game where we let ourselves down," said Doherty.
"It is difficult to put your finger on it (not getting the results the performances merited). Against France at home we were an amazing save away from getting a point out of that game. France away we were definitely beaten by the better team on the night. Then Holland at home we were a couple of personal mistakes away from winning that game also.
"I know it has not worked out so far for us but we are not far off really from getting the type of results we really deserve. It is hard to put your finger on what we need to change, we just have to put the ball in the net a little bit more and keep it out of our net a little bit more."
Looking beyond the game, Doherty maintains his support for the current Ireland management team, who he believes are doing everything right in terms of preparing the team with tactics and game plans as well as backing it all up with progressive practice sessions.
Doherty has been quite vocal praising the manager throughout Kenny’s tenure, and he believes that they have developed a very close relationship throughout his three-year tenure.
"I would like to see them stay on," said Doherty. "For me, him (Kenny), Keith (Andrews), John (O’Shea), I think they’ve been fabulous.
"He’s supported me through times when other managers might not have played me," added Doherty.
"There were times when I was not in the greatest physical shape to play and I still laced up and put the shirt on for him also, so I guess we have a really great relationship.
"I’ve said before many times, we get coached brilliantly, on the training pitch. Our preparation off the pitch, in terms of looking at the opposition. The way they set us up is the right way, and we know the game plan is the right game plan.
"It’s just up to us to carry it out on game day, which we don’t always do. But if we were capable of carrying it out, I’m sure the results would have come."
And on that note, Doherty believes that Evan Ferguson could well be the player to start guiding Ireland to those much sought after victories.
Doherty is convinced that his fellow former Bohemians man has the quality to win games for Ireland, provided that he gets the required service.
"Someone with his kind of ability and potential you want to feed him as much as possible," said Doherty.
"It is everyone’s job to feed the forward players and put them in the positions to go and win the game for us.
"We all know the start he has had to his club career and international career. It is up to us as a squad to put him in the positions where he can go and win games for us."
