Captain Robbie hails team effort

It took Ireland a little longer than many would have expected to entirely kill off the Faroe Islands’ paltry challenge, but on the night he made a record 126th appearance for Ireland, the script was always going to centre around Robbie Keane.

Much of the talk prior to kick-off had centred around the captain becoming the nation’s longest serving representative, but it was a record of another kind — his second international hat-trick, to bring his overall goal tally to 59 — which held far more importance at the end of an evening where Ireland got the job done despite an, at times, ponderous overall performance.

Some eyebrows were raised when Keane declared on Thursday that he has another five or six years to come before he considers hanging up his boots, but the proof that he can still do the business was there for all to see last night as his hat-trick kept Ireland in the hunt for second place in Group C.

“It was nice to certainly get the goals but the most important thing was the three points. All in all, it has been a good day for us,” he said. “It’s always important to get the first goal early enough and we managed to do that. You get used to getting into certain positions, thankfully the first goal came early and we kicked on from there.”

Bettering the goal difference, which stood at -1 prior to kick-off, was always going to rank high on the priority list, especially with both Austria and Sweden ahead in that regard, and Keane admitted the message to the players at half-time was to score as many as possible.

“Goal difference is massive. I said it at half time, we can’t stop, we need to keep going and get as many goals as possible. We got three, so hopefully we can worry about getting points against the other teams rather than goals.

“All in all it was a good performance. It’s a privilege and an honour to put this jersey on, it still means an awful lot to me. Long may it continue.”

Midfielder Wes Hoolahan also paid tribute to Keane: “Robbie’s been unbelievable for Ireland, he’s done it for so many years and it’s great he got the record tonight.”

In his first competitive start, the Norwich City midfielder had key roles to play in the first two goals, finding both Aiden McGeady and Seamus Coleman who in turn found Keane, and he added that he was ‘lucky’ he finally got the opportunity to shine in a green shirt.

“You wait and hope your chance comes, I got my head down with Norwich and I was lucky enough that it came.”

Eamon Dunphy, meanwhile, last night claimed it was ‘outrageous’ that Hoolahan hasn’t been a first choice pick for years.

Speaking on RTÉ, Dunphy said: “It was a great night for Keane, it was his night, but Wes Hoolahan was brilliant. He was brilliant on Sunday against Georgia and the fact he hasn’t been a regular in this team for the last several years is outrageous.

“He was outstanding, he was the leader on the field. He set the tempo and he created two of the goals. Hoolahan and Robbie Keane are the really good news stories of the night. He’s a bloody good footballer, he believes in himself. He is 31 now and he has nothing to lose.”