Doyle leads charge for Irish old guard

SCORED one, made one and never rested until he was hauled ashore and handed the man of the match award.

It was business as usual for Kevin Doyle at the RDS last night as his starring role in a victory for Ireland over Paraguay only added further lustre to the Wolves striker’s reputation as one of the most wanted men in the Premier League.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s decision to start with eight of the players who started the play-off in Paris was strictly in keeping with his modus operandi since taking on the Irish job. For the Italian, it’s always a matter of evolution rather than revolution.

There may be a few newcomers knocking on the door – and we eventually saw three of them make debuts last night – but the manager will never risk throwing the lot of them in at one go, for fear of what a hiding might do to fragile confidence. And his policy of easing in the new boys so that they are surrounded by experienced players has paid dividends before. After all, it was only one year ago that Sean St Ledger made his debut in another so-called ‘meaningless friendly’ and used that outing against Nigeria in London to cement his place in the World Cup campaign.

However, it was an old reliable who gave Ireland the lead after just seven minutes last night. After a foul on Robbie Keane, Liam Lawrence touched the resultant free-kick to Damien Duff whose chip into the box saw Paul McShane fail to connect with an attempted overhead kick. But the defender’s acrobatics were enough to distract Roque Santa Cruz who, perhaps forgetting he was facing his own goal, turned the ball onto the bar, allowing Kevin Doyle to force the rebound home from close range at the cost of a collision with the post which left him momentarily winded.

But the Wexford man had recovered fully by just short of the half-hour mark when he cleverly chested Stephen Kelly’s cross into the path of Liam Lawrence who drilled the ball into the far corner from close range.

Those two Irish goals were virtually the only moments of an otherwise pedestrian first half to galvanise a crowd of just over 16,000. With their fluid 3-4-3 set-up, the visitors saw plenty of the ball but, even with Ireland stretched at times and Stephen Kelly looking a touch tentative at right-full, the World Cup Group F team singularly failed to trouble Keiren Westwood until right on the stroke of half-time, when he dived full-length to turn away a powerful drive from Antolin Alcaraz.

For the home side, Keith Andrews was the pick of the bunch supporting Doyle, the Blackburn man crisp and decisive and continuing to blossom as a real figure of authority in the Irish midfield. Credit too to the oft-maligned Paul McShane who, alongside St Ledger, mainly performed with the distinction at the heart of the defence. And, at the other end, the goal count might even have been higher for Trapattoni’s team, had Swiss referee Jerome Lapperriere penalised Santa Cruz for what looked like a blatant trip on Lawrence in the box.

It was a different story after the break, as the Irish dropped deep and Paraguay upped the tempo and variety of their attacks, their reward coming in the 57th minute when a fluid passing move ended with Lucas Barrios – despite the attentions of three green shirts – working enough space on the edge of the box to beat Westwood with a fine low shot to the corner.

The remaining half-hour saw Trapattoni hand debut caps to Cillian Sheridan (for Robbie Keane), Paul Green (for Glenn Whelan) and Keith Fahey (for Damien Duff). Kevin Foley and Shane Long were also thrown into the fray before the end but perhaps the most impressive of the newcomers was the most unfamiliar, Derby’s Green putting in the kind of solid, no-frills shift you suspect will have warmed Trapattoni’s heart.

There were a couple of half-chances at either end but the game ended with Ireland holding on to the bragging rights. But lest we forgot about the much bigger prize that has eluded Trap’s men, the man on the public address made a point of wishing Paraguay all the best in South Africa.

Oh, well. Bring on Algeria.

Subs for Ireland: Sheridan for Keane, 63; Green for Whelan, 70; Fahey for Duff, 76; Foley for Lawrence, 82.

Subs for Paraguay: Torres for More, Ortigoza for Riveros, Bonet for Vera, all 66; Martinez for Santa Cruz, 77; Aquino for Santana, 80.

Referee: Jerome Lapperriere (Switzerland).