Positives and a point but big price to pay
All our thoughts are with the captain, Seamus Coleman, who faces a long and hard road to recovery after suffering that awful double break of his right leg.
I had feared, at half-time, the game was heading in that direction.
It was developing into a real war of attrition with, it must be acknowledged, some of the Irish players guilty of strong-arm tactics, in the form of a couple of late challenges and high elbows.
Wales manager Chris Coleman said Neil Taylor is not a dirty player. But I think the match was getting out of hand by that point, and Taylor’s wild tackle on Coleman – coming just a couple of minutes after Gareth Bale had seen yellow for his lunge at O’Shea – was a graphic reflection of the turn the game had taken.
Bale could easily have been sent off for his one – just this season in the Premier League I’ve seen players get red cards for less.
For a player of his calibre to be resorting to stuff like that shows you exactly what direction the game had taken.
Ireland had also frustrated Wales by denying them any really clear-cut chances, Bale being reduced to a couple of shots from distance which, thankfully for us, went the wrong side of the post.
Taylor had gotten in behind Seamus Coleman a couple of times in the first-half and, on one occasion, was just inches away from reaching a lofted, diagonal ball from Bale but, otherwise, the Irish defence was solid and resolute.
All over the pitch, there was concerted Irish pressure on the ball, led by the two wide men, James McClean and Jon Walters.
There was also an immense shift put in by Shane Long in chasing back and helping the rest of his team-mates put the opposition off their passing game.
It’s an understatement to say there wasn’t a whole lot of football from the home side that was easy on the eye. But then we were always going to struggle in that department in the absence of our most creative players.
There was no-one in the Irish team on Friday able to replicate the guile of Wes Hoolahan, especially when, once they went down to 10 men, the Welsh packed their defence, and we could really have done with one of Wes’s incisive passes.
And, throughout the night, the inferior quality of our set-pieces underlined how much we missed Robbie Brady. Between them, McClean and Glenn Whelan are no substitute for his left foot.
Even with Aiden McGeady coming off the bench, we still were unable to exploit our man advantage after Taylor had been sent off.
Although we upped the pressure, as you would expect, we were mainly huffing and puffing and still failed to create a really clear-cut chance.
McClean did have one effort deflected inches wide and Welsh ‘keeper Wayne Hennessy flapped at a couple of things but, even though McGeady looked a threat, no-one was able to get on the end of any of his crosses.
And you have to give Wales some credit for that. They might have been looking for three points when it was 11 against 11 but, as soon as they went down to 10 men, a point was going to be good enough for them.
Of course, Bale is not the sort of player to settle for that. And when he took advantage of a sloppy pass to run at the defence and unleash a rising shot, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who expected to see the net rippling.
That Ireland didn’t concede a goal, even if we didn’t score one, ultimately made for a great point in the wider scheme of things. We’ve now become the kind of team that no-one will relish playing against.
Other sides will look at us and see players who will give 100%, who’ll chase back, pressurise, never give anyone a moment’s peace.
From an attacking point of view, Ireland’s play might have made for a difficult watch on Friday but you had to admire the tactical discipline of the team, the way the players kept their positions, passing Bale on from one to the other.
That’s why I think, in the end, a draw was about the right result. Wales played the better football but we denied them space and time with a ferocious performance.
If they didn’t know already after the defeat to Ireland in Vienna, Austria will be under no illusion now about the severity of the test they face in Dublin in June.
I wasn’t impressed with their character in the match against us out there, and given that at the Aviva they’ll be without the suspended Marko Arnautovic – who is to their team something like what Bale is to Wales – it all bodes well for our chances in that game.
And though we’re no longer clear at the top, Group D still has a very positive look about it from an Irish point of view, especially with Serbia still having to play us here.
But even though there are plenty of positives to be taken from Friday’s result, it’s impossible to avoid returning to the night’s bad news because, not only is his injury a huge personal blow for Seamus Coleman, it also robs Ireland of a captain and leader as they look to the second-half of the World Cup campaign.
I sometimes think Ireland don’t play to Coleman’s greatest strengths because we lack midfield players with the composure and passing range to really bring his qualities as an attacking full-back into the game. But he does lead from the front and he does get up the line whenever he can.
A tremendous representative for the team and the FAI, his influence on and off the pitch is going to be sorely missed and, if we can get him back for any of the remaining games at all, it will be a huge bonus.
As he has shown in his career so far, Seamus is a very determined young man and, along with everyone else – in Ireland, at Everton and all around the game - I can only wish him all the best in coming back as soon as possible and, hopefully, as strong as ever.
