Hoolahan a luxury we can’t do without
Sadly that wasn’t to be the case. Instead, if anything, the loss to Serbia gave everyone a bit of a reality check.
It was the Irish starting line-up I had anticipated, barring Anthony Pilkington playing instead of James McClean on the flank. I just felt it was an ideal opportunity to see what Pilkington could produce for us as, since Damien Duff’s retirement, we have lacked that little bit of creativity in wide areas. Options have been limited, with too much expected of Aiden McGeady to be the one to constantly produce the magic for us.
But McClean getting the nod seemed to confirm just how highly O’Neill rates him. After all, he was the manager who saw the player flourish when he gave him his big chance at Sunderland.
O’Neill had been adamant he wanted his players to be positive and to express themselves, which is exactly what they did in a really encouraging start to the match. We were full of endeavour and enthusiasm in the first 25 minutes and, if anything epitomised the new era, it was the sight of Glenn Whelan getting forward into the box to volley McClean’s cross into the net via a touch from Wes Hoolahan who, unfortunately, was wrongly adjudged to be offside.
It was a special night for Whelan as he captained the country. I have to say that I was delighted for him as he had often shipped criticism for his role — along with myself — under Giovanni Trapattoni. But anyone who has seen him play this season, for both Stoke and Ireland, will know he is being a lot more adventurous now the shackles have been taken off him.
Up front, I was glad to see Hoolahan picked to play just behind Shane Long — and it wasn’t long before they were linking up to great effect causing the Serbians a lot of problems. There seems to have been a mistaken notion that because Hoolahan is a creative player he is a bit of a luxury to accommodate. But there’s much more to his game than flair and imagination.
He is also hard-working player who is very clever in terms of knowing when to drop in and make the extra man in midfield — something we have moaned and groaned about for years. Furthermore, he relieves the pressure on the team when he gets the ball and takes the sting out of the game with his slalom-style dribbles and inventive passing.
With our bright start, we fully deserved to take the lead, as Shane Long showed everybody exactly what he is all about by chasing a long clearance to out-muscle Bisevac and then force the normally reliable Ivanovic into a slack back pass which Long capitalised on by lobbing the ball nonchalantly over the helpless Stojkovic.
Unfortunately, the high of Long’s 11th goal for Ireland was followed by a low. For me, the turning point in this game again revolved around the striker as, if he had managed to score when Hoolahan put him through on goal, we would have seen a very different second half and most certainly a different result.
This just shows how small the margins are at international level as, frankly, the Serbians were there for the taking in the first half. But, after the restart, they quickly got their act together to make the most of the undoubted quality they have.
For our part, we needed to start the second half exactly how we’d started the first, but we never got going and Serbia upped the gears to seize control of the game, with the superb Matic at the heart of everything they did. And with our back four not having played together before it was always going to be difficult from then on.
Seamus Coleman had one of his quieter games in an Ireland shirt and has taken some criticism for his parts in both goals but — working at the match for television as I was — I can assure you the cameras don’t and can’t show everything. Certainly, he will learn from the first goal as he made the wrong decision to try and play offside. You always learn from mistakes like that, especially when they are punished, and I would be surprised if he makes the same one again.
In hindsight, he should have put his foot through the ball in the lead-up to the second goal but if we are going to be a side that plays out from the back then we need to look at what options Coleman had as he tried to find a pass — and the fact is nobody made an angle for him.
Overall, lessons will need to be learned by everyone. I’ve no doubt O’Neill and Keane will be keen to get as much time together with the players in the summer as possible, as preparation is the essence to make sure we are ready for the qualifiers.
With Scotland — who enjoyed a good win in Poland — starting to build some momentum under Gordon Strachan, it’s going to be a tough group for us, although I’m still very confident that we can qualify. Obviously, we cannot afford any slip-ups against Georgia and Gibraltar but the crucial games are going to be against the Scots and Poles, our biggest rivals for second place. We simply have to come away from those four games with more points than them.
Let’s hope that after Wednesday’s setback we can get the spirit and confidence back with some good performances and results in the summer friendlies.
