Trap admits Hoolahan overlooked in past but plays down Swede role

Giovanni Trapattoni last night admitted he had overlooked Wes Hoolahan’s claims for an Irish jersey in the past but, in the next breath, appeared to play down the player’s chances of featuring in next month’s World Cup qualifier in Sweden.

The Norwich City man made a notable contribution off the bench at the Aviva Stadium last night, injecting some badly-needed control into the home team’s passing game and scoring a superb second goal to make the victory safe.

“In the past there have been questions about Hoolahan,” said Trapattoni. “I said I know him very well. He’s not old but we have the young players like Shane Long and James McCarthy. I thought we needed two strikers in our team.

“Many times with Marco (Tardelli) we said maybe we have overlooked him because every game we saw him play for his club he played well in this position but his club is not Manchester United or Arsenal.

“He’s a tactical option for us in the future. Maybe for Sweden.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement then but Trapattoni did express his confidence in Ciaran Clarke, stating he had every confidence in the Aston Villa centre-back should he be required in Stockholm, while Conor Sammon was also pegged as a possible contender for that tie.

It seems too that David Forde will again stand between the sticks.

“Goalkeeper is a particular position. The goalkeeper needs games. In the past when Keiren Westwood played for his club it was good for him. But now he has not played for six or nine months. David Forde is playing. That’s why we picked him. That’s the reason he is No.1. We wait for Westwood to play again.”

Forde did well but is liable to be faced with a greater workload against Sweden if Ireland repeat their performance of last night and their efforts in the first-half in particular when they were way off the pace required.

Trapattoni accepted as much.

“This evening we had an objective in this match. Evaluate the performance of the new players. We wanted to see their quality and personality and their technical ability. Also to see their commitment. I asked for 90 minutes commitment. Usually the first objective is the result. It is very important in life as well as football. They gave trust and confidence particularly with the new players.

“We needed this because we can grow more. Players like Greg Cunningham continued to grow. We saw also another option in Wes Hoolahan. We won but in the first-half Poland were superior. They were very superior to us. We were a little bit tense and we misplaced many passes.”

Still, it will no doubt be argued that a win is a win and a victory of any hue is probably to be welcomed given this Irish team’s struggles in recent times, not least that 6-1 debacle to Germany only four months ago.

“Poland is not Germany. We were missing five players against Germany and we lost very badly. But this result gives us trust. Sweden will be very strong but we have more confidence. In the first-half we didn’t play football. This is the new team.”

Waldemar Fornalik was diplomacy itself afterwards but it was clear from the answers delivered by the Poland coach that he was still trying to get his head around just how his side had fallen to a defeat and by two clear goals. “I don’t think this is a game we should have lost, especially taking into account our performance in the first half, but unfortunately the Irish team was more effective.”