‘We felt almost invincible at Lansdowne’

SOME people still have problems calling the new place anything other than Lansdowne Road but even for those who can get their heads around the official change of name, the fanciful title of ‘Fortress Aviva’ still belongs to the realms of wishful thinking.

The new headquarters of Irish football might look the business but for the Aviva Stadium to really become a fabled home, performances and results on the pitch will have to radically improve. The record so far — three defeats and two wins, with the only competitive victory to date coming against lowly Andorra — is hardly the sort of thing to strike fear into Macedonia before a ball has even been kicked on Saturday evening. So you can understand why Kevin Kilbane, a veteran of some epic days and nights in the old holy ground, reckons it’s high time Irish football began recreating some of the magic of yesteryear at the new venue.

“I certainly don’t think we ever really had the feeling with Croke Park that it was our sort of fortress, the way it had been at Lansdowne,” says Kilbane. “In many ways I think we felt — I don’t know whether I should say it — almost invincible at Lansdowne. That whoever came there we weren’t going to lose to them. And our record, certainly my record when I played there, was brilliant. We had so many great nights and great days there.