Irish frustrated in fixture row

LET’S hope it’s not an omen for the European Championship campaign. Ireland travelled all the way to Moscow yesterday but couldn’t get a result, as the Group B fixture meeting in the Russian capital ended without agreement.

Consequently, it will now be up to UEFA to impose a schedule of matches for the group’s qualifying campaign, with the draw expected to take place next week.

That yesterday’s gathering ended in failure appears not to have been the fault of the Irish, nor indeed of top seeds Russia and Slovakia. Instead, perhaps surprisingly, it emerged that Armenia were the immovable object, their manager Vardan Minasyan reportedly on the phone to their delegation throughout proceedings to repeatedly veto developments.