Caoimhín Kelleher: Fruits of hard work paid off against Scotland

The Liverpool goalkeeper managed to keep a clean sheet after successive 1-0 Nations League defeats

Sun, 12 Jun, 2022 - 13:33

John Fallon

Caoimhín Kelleher insists the hard work of Ireland’s summer camp finally bore fruit with Saturday’s resounding 3-0 victory over Scotland.

The Liverpool goalkeeper managed to keep a clean sheet after successive 1-0 Nations League defeats to Armenia and Ukraine in the previous six days.

The Corkman said: “We defended brilliantly, the back three in front of me were amazing, they won every header, blocks, it was quite an easy afternoon for me and credit must go to the defenders in front of me who were brilliant.

“The two previous games wee disappointing but we were all quite motivated for this one.

“We knew it would be sold out at the Aviva, against Scotland it's such a big game, you try to forget Ukraine as quick as we could and we're just excited and wanted to put in a good performance which we did.

“We deserved a performance like this, we were unlucky against Ukraine, we wanted a strong performance and we got it today.” After Scotland’s press twice almost caught Ireland, with John McGinn failing to capitalise, Kelleher changed his kick-out approach to a long punt that led to the second goal for Troy Parrott.

He said: “I think it's important, you can't be one-dimensional, in fairness to them they pressed us well, they pressed us high, it's important to mix it up sometimes and we got some joy from going long as well so that was good.” Attention no turns to Ukraine on Tuesday in Lodz, Poland – the final leg of a four-match window.

“If we get another win we're right back in the group, so Tuesday is a big game for us and hopefully we can win again.

“Ukraine were very good here, they will be good over there as well, we've watched their games and we have seen how their squad, team, play, we will be more than ready for them.”