Andrews: Head, heart and feet

AFTER their day of rest, the Irish squad were certainly put through their paces at training in Gdynia yesterday, a 90 minute morning session ensuring that everyone got quickly back up to speed.

The fact that the unscheduled day off on Wednesday had played in some quarters as a major story says a lot about how uneventful the squad’s overall build-up has been. And even yesterday, when Marco Tardelli and Keith Andrews appeared to give contradictory accounts of how the rest day had come about, it hardly amounted to a war of words, let alone a brazen display of player power.

Assistant manager Tardelli told reporters: “Nobody asked not to train, Giovanni has decided.” But West Brom’s Andrews confirmed that the players had made know to manager their feelings about the need for a break. In a way both were right: the players asked, yes, but, of course, it was still Trapattoni who made the call.