The rocky road awards
All goals are valuable, of course, except those of the consolation variety. But some are more valuable than others – even if they don’t appear so at the time. So take a bow Keith Fahey, who came off the bench in the Republican Stadium in Yerevan on September 3, 2010 to drill home the goal which gave Ireland a 1-0 victory against Armenia in the first game of the 2012 qualifying campaign. The significance of Fahey’s intervention would become apparent much later on when the Armenians, getting better by the game, emerged as dark horse contenders for a qualifying place. Indeed, by the end of the campaign, Fahey’s goal meant Ireland had been the only Group B visitors to leave Yerevan with a win.
Shrill critics of Robbie Keane — and they were out in force again when the player decamped to LA — are never slow in trying to play down his achievements, a bit like the revolutionaries in ‘Life Of Brian’ who ask what the Romans ever did for them — apart from bringing roads, sanitation, medicine, education, irrigation, baths, a freshwater system and public order. So, just for the record, in the 2012 qualifying campaign, Ireland’s skipper broke through the 50 goal mark, was our leading scorer with seven and, in the decisive first-leg play-off against Estonia, was involved in all the key moments in the game. He also, of course, netted two goals himself to bring his Irish record to 53 on the night. But then, he did miss a penalty earlier in the campaign against Slovakia, didn’t he? So, again, we must ask: what has Robbie Keane ever done for us?
The veritable bleeping blizzard of the little blighters which told almost disbelieving Irish players in the departures lounge at Moscow airport last September that their minor miracle in keeping Russia scoreless at the Luzhniki a couple of hours earlier was now assuming major proportions thanks to Armenia putting one, two, three and finally four goals past Slovakia. Stephen Kelly recalled: “People would go to the bathroom and come out and there’d have been another goal ‘It’s 4-0 now’. ‘You’re havin’ a laugh!’”. The big swing night of the campaign.
Keith Andrews was coming off the pitch in Tallinn when he was congratulated by a man in an Estonian tracksuit. But a man in an Estonian tracksuit who spoke with an Irish accent. “That’s a bit odd,” Andrews remembers thinking to himself. Step forward Conor Cunningham of Ballincollig who bluffed his way into the Le Coq Arena and, having happened upon a spare tracksuit and bag of balls, ended up spending part of the game in the Estonian dug-out. At one point he was even captured by a television camera as he handed a ball to an Estonian player. Explaining his headline-grabbing stunt, ticketless Conor said: “Touts were looking for e600 with a e14 face value and after paying for the flight, I was ready to do anything. I threw on the gear, kept the head down and went for it.” Disappointingly, Trap could not find room for him in his squad of 23.
Paul McGrath after the player’s heroics in helping secure that improbable point in Moscow: “Richard Dunne congratulations. The best performance I have seen from any Irish centre-half and that includes myself.”
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