More perspiration than inspiration

IN THE boiling post-match press conference room of the Republican Stadium in Yerevan, Giovanni Trapattoni literally and metaphorically wiped the sweat from his brow, having just seen his Irish team both squander chances and withstand considerable pressure before blissful deliverance was supplied by Keith Fahey’s right foot.

“I said it wouldn’t be easy,” he said. “Psychologically it was difficult, the weather was very hot and some of our players hadn’t played much for the clubs. So it was a very difficult game but I think that over 90 minutes, we deserved to win. Yes, we had work to do defensively but in the first half Robbie Keane also had two good chances to score.”

And, in the end, he was leaving with what he’d come for.

“This was a very important result for us,” he said. “This was our first qualifying game and with the confidence of this win and the right mentality, we can move forward. It might not have been the beautiful game but the result was all-important. I think other countries coming here will not find it easy.”

Asked if he’d made an inspired substitution by sending in match-winner Fahey for Aiden McGeady, Trapattoni smiled and said: “McGeady had worked very hard, defensively too, and whether it was lucky or not, the change worked well for us.”

Famous for his mispronunciation of the name of the former St Pat’s man, Trapattoni now quipped: “Fackey, Fahey, it doesn’t matter as long as he scored.”

Trapattoni denied that Robbie Keane’s uncharacteristic misses were down to his lack of game time at Spurs

“No, it was nothing to do with that,” he maintained. “He was carrying an injury and that’s why I substituted him. He worked very hard.”

But Trapattoni did concede that Derby’s Paul Green took time to settle in his first competitive international game.

“Paul Green started the game nervously, because there was a lot of pressure on his shoulder,” he said. “In the first half, he made a few bad passes but he always recovered with tackles and in the second half I thought he was one of the best players on the pitch.”