All sides happy to walk away after phoney war

THERE may have been very little to capture the imagination last night but neither Giovanni Trapattoni nor Slaven Bilic will be complaining too much.

No psychological blow was suffered or inflicted. More importantly, nor were any physical ones, as both countries look to keep their resources intact for the resumption of the really meaningful business next month.

For Ireland, the positives were that a team ranked ninth in the world had been comfortably repelled, extending an unbeaten run of games to five. And Trapattoni will also have been encouraged by the performance of Stephen Ward, in particular, and reminded — as if he needed reminding — that Robbie Keane remains a key man for the Republic.