Roll on the real action

AFTER the staggering climax of Ireland versus Italy, the prolonged anti-climax of Ireland versus Montenegro.

But then, as Giovanni Trapattoni is wont to say, if it was a show you wanted, you should have been at the theatre and not in Croke Park last night.

Indeed, the sight of blazers pulling balls out of a hat in Zurich on Monday is bound to be a lot more dramatic than this almost classically dull and inconsequential scoreless draw, as Ireland’s play-off destiny is finally revealed at FIFA headquarters.

But methinks we should not protest too much. After all, the key objectives last night were achieved: Shay Given avoided yellow and kept a clean sheet on his 100th appearance and Ireland finished their group qualifying campaign unbeaten. A vastly underpopulated Croke Park might have been hugely underwhelmed but, whatever happens here next month, this will have already been forgotten and no-one will be left feeling indifferent.

It was one of those nights where the ceremonial was always likely to prove more engaging than the action on the pitch.

Before kick-off, Kevin Kilbane and Shay Given were invited to step forward from the team line-up and, appropriately, onto the red carpet, to receive a warm ovation from the crowd, as well as their team mates, on the occasion of both veterans gaining their 100th caps.

Arguably, the second loudest cheer of the first half came when Paul McGrath, looking on from a seat in the stands, briefly appeared on the big screen. The ‘Ooh Aah’ chant instantly rose up, a reminder of the heady days which all of Irish football now hopes are returning, however stealthily, under Trapattoni.

Not that there was too much to get the crowd in celebratory mood in a tame first half. The sight of Damien Duff doing his trademark shuffle was heartwarming but, unfortunately, his finishing let him down for Ireland’s first big chance in the 26th minute. Stephen Hunt was excellent in the build-up, taking the ball neatly under control in a central position and then, via a cheeky nutmeg pass, putting Duff in on goal from the right. But, with the defender wisely showing him the outside line, the Fulham man’s shot was weakly off-target, only rippling the outside of the net.

With the game suddenly budding, if not quite bursting, into life, Montenegro replied at the other end, Nikola Drincic’s long-range effort deflecting off Sean St Ledger’s head into the welcoming arms of Ireland’s ton-up goalkeeper.

Emboldened by that sight of goal, the Montenegrins came even closer a moment later when, in a situation Trapattoni definitely won’t want to see replicated in the play-offs, St Ledger and Richard Dunne were left looking on helplessly, as skipper Branko Boskovic got into the wide, open space between the two central defenders but somehow directed a free header wide of Given’s upright.

That was followed by a much more worrying personal setback for Martin Rowlands, as the QPR man – who was having a quietly impressive outing up to then – appeared to twist his knee and was stretchered off amidst the obvious concern of his team mates.

That meant the resting John O’Shea was obliged to enter the fray, this time taking up position alongside Liam Miller in midfield, but it was another established defender, Richard Dunne, who came closest to breaking the deadlock four minutes before the break when his trademark thumping header from Stephen Hunt’s free-kick came crashing back off the crossbar.

Nine minutes after the restart, Robbie Keane had Ireland’s next sight of goal but Vukasin Poleksic kept the striker’s low, angled drive at bay, as the crowd amused themselves with a Mexican wave, a distraction which is unlikely to get much of an outing in the nail-biting circumstances of the next big football match at GAA headquarters.

Had this game had anything riding on it, then a huge talking point would have been the incident in the 65th minute which saw Montenegro’s best player Simon Vukcevic dance his way into the heart of the Irish penalty area, only to be denied a clear goal by the upraised hand of Paul McShane as the Hull man valiantly attempted a last-ditch block. But the officials didn’t see it and Ireland avoided having to pay the penalty.

The goal the game needed and the crowd craved never did come but it should have done four minutes from the end when Ireland put together probably their best move of the match but failed to apply the required finish. Kilbane, Miller, Duff and Keane were all involved in an unusually imaginative build-up down the left side but the Fulham winger and the Spurs striker were not on precisely the same wavelength for the final ball, and the chance to win the game went a-begging.

After that, the game petered out and the evening ended in muted applause – the quintessential sound of the calm before next month’s storm.

Subs for Ireland: John O’Shea for Martin Rowlands, 37; Leon Best for Noel Hunt, 68; Andy Keogh for Stephen Hunt, 87.

Subs for Montenegro: Miodrag Dzudovic for Radoslav Batak, 30; Dejan Damjanovic for Andrija Delibasic, 61; Mladen Kascelan for Branko Boskovic, 80.