Stephen Ward, Leon Best and Robbie Brady were among those to impress on a relatively quiet weekend for the Irish across channel.
By Niall Delaney
With Slovakia coming to town on Friday night and a dicey date with Russia the following Tuesday, it’s the most pivotal week in Irish football for many a year.
At this stage in a qualifying campaign, we are normally only battling it out for second place, but this time, top spot is attainable. The results over the next seven days will almost certainly decide who will top the group and gain automatic entry to the Euros, a tournament that we have not played in since 1988, a time when you could actually go into a shop and buy something with a coin.
Ahead of this crucial double header, however, it was relatively quiet for Irish players cross channel, but this may not be a bad thing with Keith Fahey the only major casualty from the weekend fixtures.
Richard Dunne showed that all the years training together in Malahide has given him a good ability to read Kevin Doyle’s game as he kept the Waterford man quiet in the Midlands derby between Aston Villa and Wolves on Saturday. Indeed, it was a fixture that had a strong Irish interest and even forced poor old Giovanni Trapattoni to leave the comfort of his presumably Italian leather armchair and get to a game.
Trap was actually at a game?
Both he and Robbie Keane’s original nemesis Marco Tardelli sat in the stands at Villa Park to watch Shay Given be solid without being unduly bothered, Stephen Hunt be a busy bee but without a particularly dangerous sting and Stephen Ward (from left back) be arguably Wolves’ best attacking threat.
The Dubliner is going from strength to strength and made several incisive runs down the left wing, providing one superb cross that Hunt should really have done better with. On this form he has to be included in Ireland’s first XI ahead of Kevin Kilbane, although a bag of chicken giblets on a stick would offer Ireland more defensive nous than the first cousin of Mayo singing star James Kilbane.
Pictured from right: Leon Best, Stephen Ireland and some random Newcastle trainee from Galway
Elsewhere, Shane Long looked sharp against Stoke in another game which featured its fair share of Irish internationals. Long is the form player in the Irish squad right now and should be in the team, but Doyle is quality and no matter what people say about Robbie Keane, you can’t leave out a man that has delivered more than any other Irish player in recent years.
On the Stoke side, Glenn Whelan is back in favour with Tony Pulis and has taken his chance with both hands, while Jon Walters and Marc with a C Wilson, although currently out of favour with Trap, are players we cannot afford to ignore. While Walters is gone slightly off the boil, Wilson has been performing well at left back at Premier League level, but we are fine there remember, because we have KEVIN KIL…. Oh dear.
Best foot forward
Having put aside his crazy nightclubbing antiques alongside the allegedly Irish, Stephen Ireland, and some random Newcastle trainee from Galway (see picture above), Leon Best is scoring goals again and bagged himself a brace against a sluggish Fulham side on Sunday. Best tapped home his first after some dodgy goalkeeping from Mark Schwarzer and then added a fine second, adroitly turning in the box and coolly side footing home after being found by a Demba Ba cross.
Big, strong and quick, the Newcastle striker could offer Ireland at least three things more than Andy Keogh, but he’s not in the squad and Andy Keogh is, but hey, it’s only qualification for a major tournament that’s at stake!
Other things to note from the weekend were that Keith Andrews scored a last minute winner for Ipswich Town, the potentially excellent Robbie Brady scored a peach for Hull, John O’Shea started for Sunderland against Swansea and almost scored a header and very importantly, Aiden McGeady got back on the pitch, albeit only for three minutes for Spartak Moscow.
The winger is vital to our chances of automatic qualification and is without doubt one of Ireland’s most important players now as he offers us a pace, directness and an ability to counter attack that no one else in the squad can match. Even without 100% match fitness or sharpness, he has to start with Stephen Hunt reverting back to his role as an impact sub.
