No room for error in Armenia, warns O’Shea

A GLITTERING club career collecting trophies like a schoolboy gathers stamps breeds high standards in a man so it comes as no surprise that John O’Shea harbours great expectations as Ireland kick another campaign off.

Never mind that Spain scraped a 2-1 win in Armenia on their way to success in South Africa. Or that Belgium fell to a defeat by the same margin in Yerevan. For O’Shea, it is a case of win or bust. A draw simply won’t do.

“No, not at all, especially with us playing Andorra the following game. You don’t want to look too far ahead but that’s a great chance for us to get six points from two games. You’re going into the October games then full of confidence. But if we don’t get our minds right from the start we’ll be in for a hell of a shock because these so-called lesser teams have a habit of making us look very stupid.”