Rolling back the years

BACK in 1982 I saw — or, rather, endured — the Rolling Stones at Slane Castle and, after a couple of hours of ostentatious tedium, concluded that they were a spent force, a bunch of washed-up forty-somethings cynically content with going through the motions and collecting a fat cheque.

Last Saturday, I took a chance and accepted a late invitation to revisit Slane and — whaddya know? — 25 years on, the self-same Stones were improbably, ridiculously good, a bunch of sixty-somethings who had somehow rediscovered the raison d’etre which had made them so vital and exciting all of 40 years before.

In the annals of the miraculous, it would be as if Pele came out of retirement and showed the world that he is still every bit the genius he was when he helped inspire Brazil to their greatest ever World Cup triumph in Mexico in 1970.

The truth, of course, is that art is long and sport is short and, especially for footballers, the journey from zero to hero and back again can occur at something approaching warp speed.

This week, many of us noted that Ireland’s stunning 4-0 week in Denmark came almost exactly a year after Steve Staunton’s team had been on the receiving end of an identical hammering at the shooting boots of Holland in Dublin. That was the game which set alarm bells ringing at deafening levels but the wake-up call was only intermittently heeded and much worse was still to come in Cyprus and San Marino.

The ‘moral defeat’ in Serraville had the country in uproar, with strident calls for the resignation of Steve Staunton and John Delaney, while some of Ireland’s best-known players were widely depicted as Premiership prima donnas who had disgraced the green shirt. And all that, remember, was just last February.

But you only had to go back one hour from the final whistle on Wednesday to see how a triumphant night could have ended up as something quite different.

For 30 minutes Ireland were ragged as Denmark ran the show and, had you been betting in-running, the only 4-0 scoreline which seemed likely at that point was one in favour of the rampant home side. But, as John Giles always says, goals change games. Robbie Keane’s splendid first may have been Ireland’s first real shot on target but it signalled a turning of the tide, while his second pretty much ended the game as a contest. Danish heads dropped, Irish tails went up and, after that, it was gravy all the way for the visitors.

One of the most striking features of Steve Staunton’s management to date has been the dignified sense of proportion he has maintained in the face of both vitriol and acclaim — recall, for example, his refusal to get carried away by that opening 3-0 win against Sweden when all about him were excitedly heralding a new dawn for Irish football.

Doubtless, he’ll have been rightly pleased by many aspects of Ireland’s display on Wednesday but he will also be at pains to remind his players that they were fortunate not to be punished severely for their slow and nervous start. Ensuring that Ireland kick off on the front foot will be one of the keys to securing the desired outcome from the trips to Bratislava and Prague next month. And even as he reflects positively on the clinical finishing of Robbie Keane and Shane Long, Staunton is also wise enough to know that in the competitive tests to come, Ireland are unlikely to encounter so charitable a goalkeeper as Denmark’s hapless Christiansen.

SUCH an emphatic win away from home is clearly to be welcomed but, a friendly is still only a friendly, and the real significance of Aarhus is what it says about the increasingly healthy competition for places in Ireland’s first 11. As head coach Kevin MacDonald noted on Wednesday night, Staunton now has some difficult decisions to make, and while he didn’t identify the positions in question, it’s not hard to make them out. At centre-half, it looks like it comes down to a straight choice between John O’Shea and Paul McShane as a partner for the excellent Richard Dunne. For his big impact on the Euro qualifiers since his debut against the Czechs in Dublin, the inspirational McShane would be my choice but O’ Shea, so inconsistent in the green shirt, gave one of his best ever displays for his country on Wednesday and that, allied to his greater experience of big away games, may see him get the nod from the manager.

In midfield, the choice is between an apparently rejuvenated Andy Reid, whose exquisite passing was a feature of the win in Denmark, and Stephen Ireland, not a dissimilar talent, and one of the real discoveries of the campaign to date. The second coming of Reid has long been anticipated by those of us who relish a Brady-like figure in the Irish midfield, but the Manchester City tyro, whose inventive skill accommodates an acute eye for goal, has done nothing to suggest that he shouldn’t retain a starting spot alongside Lee Carsley.

On the left, Stephen Hunt could pay for an underwhelming night in Aarhus, with Staunton likely to opt for the experience, honest work rate and defensive attributes of Kevin Kilbane for the away games. Hunt, an exciting talent, may already be sick of the ‘impact sub’ tag but his proven ability to make an explosive interjection from the bench is likely to be put to the test again in Bratislava and Prague.

Of course, such considerations may prove entirely academic should injuries arise, while the permutations would also change were Staunton to abandon the 4-4-2 formation which Ireland deployed to such productive effect in Denmark. But perhaps the single most encouraging aspect of Wednesday’s win was the confirmation it offered, following the victories in Croker and the rewarding trip to the States, that there is new vitality and strength in depth to the whole Irish squad.

That gives much cause for optimism for the future but still leaves Ireland with catching up to do in Group D and a couple of mountains to climb in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. That six points remains a very long shot but by no means the stuff of fantasy football says much about the new self-belief coursing through the national set-up. But four would seem to be the more realistic target and, arguably, the minimum required if Ireland are to maintain a realistic pursuit of a qualifying berth. Two draws would just about keep the show on the road but if Ireland were to lose one and win one, better that the three points come in the second game in Prague.

As for two losses, let’s not even go there, although the uncomfortable truth is that this Irish side has still a bit to do before it erases Cyprus and San Marino from the memory banks. But after what was a traumatic week for Steve Staunton personally and a rewarding night for him professionally, it feels good to be able to accentuate the positive and to compliment the manager, his staff and the players for giving us all an evening to savour in Denmark.

As for the bigger tests to come, let’s hope the old Strolling Bones got it at least partly right when they observed: “you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.”