Revenge…

Unpleasant to watch? Very.

Questions about the side? A few, yep.

Delighted with the result? And then some.

In some ways, this helps to put to bed the open wound that was the bloody 5-2 defeat in the same stadium, 3 years ago. I’m downright sick of mentioning it, you’re almost certainly ill of seeing it slapped all over my posts, so now I can put that one to bed. It remains in the history books, and there’s always a place in the head for it, but not right now. Not after Saturday.

You’ll have to forgive me for the rubbish highlights video. Right now it’s the best I can find on the interweb. If it’s any help, I’ll break down the 26 seconds into chunks for all of you. In all truth, the four little snippets are about as much as you’d want to see from that game again.

0:01: Glenn Whelan’s half-volley from Robbie Keane’s headed lay-off is brilliantly saved by Sofrounis Avgousti with the sides’ level early in the second half.

0:04: Andrews’ tries to run through a wall of three Cypriot defenders in the penalty box, with the ball breaking to Kevin Doyle, who turns and finishes low into the bottom corner on his left foot, giving us the lead after 5 minutes. An excellent finish, taking advantage of defensive errors. (One of the lads the camera films celebrating was wearing a Mayo jersey as well, representing the county \o/)

0:12: The ball breaks to Marios Elia on the right-hand side of the penalty area after some bad defending on our part. He capitalises on a lack of closing down to hammer an effort beyond Shay Given into the bottom corner. Another excellent finish, but even worse defending this time. 1-1 midway through the first half.

0:18: Damien Duff’s cross (second after I screamed at the TV that the ball was once again going nowhere) floats into the centre, where Robbie Keane loses his marker, getting to the ball ahead of Soufrounis and nodding the ball into an open goal with 8 minutes left. More rotten defending, but it’s not as if we cared at that point. Cue jubilant celebrations, followed by reflection on my pathological need for the ball to be in the penalty area a few second after we win possession….

In all truth, it was far from a good performance. Mark Lawrenson usually manages to raise my ire when talking about football, but once I got beyond the predictable negativity of the title of his Irish Times piece, it’s clear he does have some points. I’m not so concerned about the tactics, Traps either employed the same tactics at the start of all out away games in the group, or he reverted to it towards the end of the game. The fact that we went unbeaten away from home through 5 games after such an awful record in the last qualifying campaign should be the point of reference, tactics can wait for another day.

Lawrenson does strike a chord with his criticism of some of the players on the night. Particularly the midfield and Kevin Kilbane. Trapattoni’s interview with Tony O’Donoghue after the game specifically refers to how we “lost the midfield” 15 minutes into the first half. It again goes back to the concerns about the ability of Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews. While I may be something of an advocate for Andrews, I’m in the minority, and Saturday night did nothing to assuage the fears of others. He was quiet, he lacked creativity and for almost all of the game he offered nothing going forward or for that matter in defence. The same applies for Whelan. The technique on his half-volley was excellent, and frankly it merited a goal. However, that was it for him on the night. Beyond that he was merely a person in a white shirt on the pitch, with no influence whatsoever on proceedings. Alarm bells are ringing, we need Stephen Reid back as quickly as possible, and we also need a second player in the centre who can actually create something out of nothing, to add an extra dimension. Liam Lawrence should be the next to try his luck, but I fear he falls into the same category as the two who turned out in Nicosia.

And then you get to Kevin Kilbane, who will soon pass Steve Staunton as the most-capped outfield player for the national side (Staunton won 102 caps, Kilbane is currently on 98). How insulting to Staunton, who was a player genuinely deserving of such an honour. The fact that Kilbane will soon assume this position makes me somewhat embarrassed. Not for the first time in an Irish shirt, he was awful, and the source of our problems for the better part of an hour. It was his rubbish closing down which allowed Elia to latch onto the loose ball and rifle the shot past Given. It was his rubbish marking for the rest of the game which allowed Elia time and again to make a nuisance of himself down the right hand side, a problem which on a couple of occasions was negated by Damien Duff. I mean, Damien Duff!

It’s funny, as a precocious youngster following the Irish side, I always had a black mark against Kilbane’s name after that horror miss of his when Ian Harte’s penalty was saved in the match against Spain at the World Cup. But, as time went on, he went some of the way to healing that open wound with a handful of good performances in the shirt. Now, however, it’s quickly reverting back to the original position. He was bad against Bulgaria, worse against Cyprus, and it’s time for him to be shipped out. Bugger sentiment and 100 caps, he’s been floating around in the defence like a bad smell for ages. Time for change, even if that means blooding an inexperienced youngster, even Michael Liddle of Sunderland. Otherwise, Kilbane will just stick around for ages, and if that means lining up in South Africa, there’s a weak link within the defence…

Otherwise, it’s hard to be critical of individuals. Lawrenson makes a point of mentioning John O’Shea’s performance but personally I felt he was solid enough. There were difficulties against the tricky Aloneftis (who I said in my preview was of no concern, go me!) in the first half, but beyond that he did fine, so I’m not going to lead the charge against O’Shea. No-one covered themselves in glory on either side in what was a poor match, but uiltimately we just did enough to get the result, and right now that’s all that matters.

If there’s anything to add to that, then perhaps it would be nice to see a few more shots at goal during the match, even it’s from unconventional positions, just to test the opponents a bit more. From what I remember on Saturday night, we had four attempts at goal, the two goals, Whelan’s effort and a shot from Stephen Hunt shortly after the opener which went wide. Beyond that, I’m struggling to remember anything of note. A few more won’t hurt, and a few more will be required in upcoming games, so either we need to revert to some other-worldly style of slick, passing, attacking football, or we just start firing efforts in whenever we can. It won’t hurt, and it should help to keep the opposition on the backfoot somewhat. On the subject of going forward, more of Caleb Folan please Traps. The man might just typify Lawrenson’s ‘Neanderthal’ tactics more than most in the side, but he ultimately proved to be far more dangerous to the Cypriot defence in the 15 or so minutes he was on, than Doyle was for the remainder of the match when he scored. If it worked for us in the past with Big Niall, it can damn sure work with Big Caleb. Get him on earlier, get him making a nuisance of himself, because no-one seems to fancy it. Beyond that, there’s little to say positive or negative at the moment, it’s all a case of treading water somewhat, at least until we know what the situation is on Thursday morning.

Unfortunately, the others who needed to win in the group did. Italy were the beneficiaries of Kakha Kaladze’s single handed crusade to con us out of a place at the World Cup (clearly), securing a 2-0 win in Tblisi thanks to the centre-back scoring two own goals (I must admit, I kinda like the first one). Bulgaria also kept pace with us and the Italians, coming from behind to win 4-1 at home against Montenegro, highlights worth watching just marvel at Montenegro’s goal, and how bad their goalkeeper was for Berbatov’s penalty. Italy are getting the job done at the moment, and Bulgaria are beginning to look like the classy outfit they can be, so Wednesday night should be fascinating, with the pair playing each other in Turin.

A draw there would do us a world of good, although to be honest I’m not averse to an Italian win, because all I’ve ever geared myself up for in this group was a play-off spot. If Bulgaria fancy doing us a favour, then I won’t stop them, but an away win would probably be detrimental, because then it necessitates us getting a result at home to the Italians, and beating Montenegro. Four points at that stage may not even be enough, because of Bulgaria’s superior goal difference, so we need to be careful what we wish for. In this case, an Italian win may be something akin to better the devil we know. The game is on RTE for those of you back in the Motherland, but for us English based souls, it’ll be through a dodgy feed off t’Internet. If I manage to watch the match, I’ll report back at some point later in the week.

Oh, and as a side-note, we’re playing South Africa tonight. Yeah, I know, talk about neglect, although in truth this really does have the feel of something after the Lord Mayor’s show, or whatever the saying is. We will be experimenting on the night, with RTE taking the opportunity to use an awful headline to announce Traps’ intentions. I think it’s the right approach to the match, buggered if any one of Given, Robbie or Dunne gets injured on the night and is out for the two qualifiers next month. That and it’s time a few players started challenging the established order for places within the starting XI. We should line up as follows:

GK: Westwood (Coventry)
DL: Stephen Kelly (Fulham)
DR: Nolan (Birmingham)
DC: St. Ledger (Preston North End)
DC: McShane (Hull)
ML: Keogh (Wolves)
MR: Lawrence (Stoke)
MC: Gibson (Manchester United)
MC: Andrews (Blackburn Rovers)
FC: Folan (Hull)
FC: Doyle (Wolves)

It will be something new to see Stephen Kelly at left-back, but right now I’ll take whoever other than Kilbane fancies a go in that slot. It’ll be a good test for Westwood to see if there is some sort of replacement for Given on that dark day when he calls it quits from the national team. Nolan will be keen to prove himself after a bad match against the Nigerians back in May. Concerns abound about the centre of midfield again, with Gibson having a nightmare against the Australians last time we were at Thomond Park. Keogh has been on the frgines of the side for a while now, so it’s time for him to shape up and prove his worth, with this a better opportunity to show off his talents. Lawrence on the right side is a bit of an odd one, as he doesn’t strike me as a natural winger, but good luck to him. The link-up between Folan and Doyle should also be interesting, as they appear to be the next two in line after Robbie. Doyle seems to flounder when asked to chase the ball and make chances, but if Caleb puts them on a plate for him tonight with his aerial prowess, then there really is no excuses for someone of the known finishing ability which Doyle possesses. The Wolves man is also captain for the night, so congratulations are due for that at least.

What to say about the South Africans? They’re coming with a couple of familiar names, probably the most notable being Everton’s winger Steven Pienaar. Aaron Mokoena is always famous in my head for making a mess of Arjen Robben’s ankle one February night many moons ago, but he’s also the Bafana’s skipper, so he deserves respect. Elio van Heerden may be of some interest to Blackburn Rovers fans, but I’m afraid I can’t offer an opinion on him, having failed to see him in action thus far.

I’ll try and get around to watching the match, but it’s a bit up in the air at the moment. If I do manage to see it live o on the highlights, I’ll offer up some opinions later in the week. For now though, I’m off to bask in the glory of not having to think about humiliating defeats to miniscule European nations, at least until San Marino pop up in our Euro 2012 group.

For now, all the best everyone.