Forget pretty, just perform

IF THERE is any upside to the setback of the 2-2 draw with Israel in Dublin, it’s that any danger of pre-summer holiday complacency Ireland going into tonight’s game in the Faroe Islands ought to have been extinguished.

With minds now fully concentrated on the need to collect three points from a trip which had seemed like a novelty sideshow when the draw for Group 4 was made, the Irish take on a Faroe side which has managed to restrict France and Switzerland to two-goal victory margins on their visits to the North Atlantic.

Football history too holds out a warning of the perils that can lie in wait for the big sharks who swim with the minnows. Some of us who attended the Irish training session yesterday at the intimate Torsvollur Stadium - with its tight bumpy pitch, basic facilities and lack of cover - couldn’t help but think of growing up in an era of fabled giant-killing FA Cup exploits in places like Hereford, Colchester, Wrexham and Yeovil.