Ireland take the gain from the pain

YOU couldn’t say that it was pretty but, my, was it effective. The stayaways might have dominated the build-up but it was the ones who seem to have been around forever who made the crucial difference in Skopje.

Two goals from Robbie Keane and two saves of almost equal value from Shay Givens were the pivotal factors which swung this game in Ireland’s favour. The remainder was down to a performance of wholehearted collective endeavour and discipline — and a dollop of help from Lady Luck.

The result was an away win against lively opposition in hostile surroundings which means the race in Group B for qualification for next year’s European Championship finals is still of the neck and neck, three-horse variety, as we prepare to turn the corner and head into the home straight in the Autumn.

On the night the city’s extensively revamped national stadium was having its official baptism, the local supporters massed in the 30,000-capacity arena ensured that the visitors would still experience a hot reception. The travelling Irish support, confined to a small wedge in the red and yellow stands, soon ran out of space to hang their banners, but were allowed to place them flat on the ground behind the goal instead.

But despite looking for alarmingly long periods that they might well crack under the pressure, the players they were supporting never did lie down. And, in the end, they were the ones walking tall past those flags and throwing their shirts and gloves to the faithful.

Prior to the game, Robbie Keane has spoken of how he and Simon Cox, not exactly being twin peaks, would require balls played into feet or in behind the Macedonia defence. That sounded not so much like fighting talk but almost a call to revolutionary arms from the captain of a team which has never been shy of taking the high and long route to goal.

In fact, there would be plenty of the latter throughout as Ireland once again struggled to retain the ball — let alone develop much in the way of fluent football — yet, the very first time they kept it on the ground, the more considered approach paid handsome dividends.

With the game only seven minutes old, Keith Andrews drilled a penetrating forward pass and, from outside the area, Robbie Keane’s full-blooded blast took a deflection which helped loop it over Martin Bogatinov and into the net, to give the striker that record-breaking 50th goal in international football.

Of course, through long and bitter experience, we know better than to regard an early Irish goal as anything other than an invitation to a solid hour of terror and, this time, we only had to wait five minutes for the first fright as Goran Pandev got in behind the Irish defence only to find that, like his skipper, Shay Given was intent on having a memorable night of his own. If a laser and, later, a groin strain, weren’t going to get the better of him, then neither was the Inter Milan danger man.

Mind you, Given must have touched wood too because later in the half, with Ireland already two to the good, that’s all Ivan Trickovski could do from the penalty spot, hitting the crossbar after John O’Shea had felled Pandev with a wild kick.

And the Manchester United man, who was not sharing the happiest of nights alongside Darren O’Dea in a nervy central defence, had earlier had his own slice of luck when referee Floran Meyer charitably adjudged his tangle in the box with Pandev a matter of six of one and half a dozen of the other.

But you could hardly argue that it was just another stroke of fortune which accounted for Ireland’s second goal, even if Boban Grncarov has to be accredited with the assist. The poor man’s scuffed excuse for a backpass might have been one for the blooper tapes, but Robbie Keane still had to show all his class and composure in a one-on-one situation to slide the ball past Bogatinov and inside the post.

Ireland should really have been three-up before the break, but for Simon Cox’s goal — after more great play by Keane — incorrectly ruled out for offside.

And the longer the second half went on, the more the Irish took command, albeit from a mainly defensive position. O’Dea began to grow in confidence alongside O’Shea, while Keith Andrews and Glenn Whelan did a solid job in providing a protective screen in front of them. Stephen Kelly and Kevin Kilbane also played their part in denying Macedonia the chance to stage a comeback while McGeady provided a ready outlet for Irish breaks. By now, the home side were mainly reduced to speculative shots from distance but even when Mario Durovski got a splendid one on target, Given denied him with an equally splendid save.

Stephen Hunt’s wholehearted, disciplined and relentlessly competitive performance personified all the best attributes of Ireland’s display. Certainly, Goran Popov, Macedonia’s normally rampaging left-back, must have been sick of the sight of his one-man security detail by the end of the 90 minutes.

Critics of the lack of coherent football from Ireland should also remember that this was a side unsettled by the loss of Richard Dunne, Damien Duff and Kevin Doyle and which also had to cope with a rash of recent injury concerns as well as a chronic shortage of game time for some of its key personnel. It was a measure of the side’s battling spirit that four players on the pitch required pain-killing injections to help get them through — Keane and O’Dea beforehand and Given and Hunt at half-time.

But you know what the pop psychologists like to say: no pain, no gain. Ireland put flesh and even some blood on the theory in Skopje on Saturday and, in the end, the outcome was as welcome as it was deserved.

FYR MACEDONIA: Bogatinov, Grncarov, Noveski, Sikov, Popov, Sumulikoski, Demiri (Savic 72), Despotovski (Durovski 56), Pandev, Trickovski, Naumoski (Hansi 10).

REP OF IRELAND: Given; Kelly, O’Shea, O’Dea, Kilbane; McGeady, Whelan, Andrews, Hunt; Keane, Cox (Long 65).

Referee: Florian Meyer (Germany)