Doyle can finally draw his breath as whirlwind season ends

AFTER 18 months, approximately 60 games and two league medals, Kevin Doyle finally got the chance to put the boots in cold storage after Ireland’s defeat to Chile on Wednesday night.

It is a measure of how busy the Reading striker has been since swapping life at Turner’s Cross for the Madejski Stadium that he only received his eircom League winner’s medal from Brian Lennox and Damien Richardson before kick-off two days ago.

That was to prove the high point on an evening where the latest attempt by an Irish team to break free from the straitjacket of 4-4-2 ended prematurely after an abysmal 25 minutes. Like his manager and colleagues, Doyle repeated the line of ‘nothing risked, nothing gained’ but Ireland were ill at ease while playing 3-4-3 and Doyle admitted the formation was difficult to come to terms with.