The Waiting Game

AFTER experiencing Heaven and Hell in Croke Park on Saturday, Irish football now finds itself in Limbo. (Ask your granddad).

Certainly, if a nation is holding its breath today, it’s more in anticipation of next Monday’s play-off draw at FIFA headquarters in Zurich rather than tonight’s dead rubber World Cup qualifier against Montenegro in Croke Park.

Ever the professional, Giovanni Trapattoni might talk up the significance of the game in terms of how a good result would increase confidence, boost rankings and maintain Ireland’s unbeaten group record but when, in the next breath, he recalls himself saying that there are no such things as “friendly games” in international football, he inadvertently gets closer to describing tonight’s contest for what it really is: a waiting game.