Players keep powder dry

Wales 0 Republic of Ireland 0

At least the statisticians had something to write home about. By the time all the subs had been introduced, Ireland had gone through no less than four captains in the 90 minutes — John O’Shea, Shane Long, Seamus Coleman and Jon Walters. But other notable match points were rather thin on the ground.

Before the game, Anthony Pilkington — ruled out of his fifth successive Irish squad through injury — had tweeted his best wishes to the Irish team. “Gutted I’m not there,” he said, “fingers crossed I’m back fit in time for the games next month.” And, for good measure, he later added a picture of himself and his kids, with the little ones decked out in green shirts.

But while Trapattoni waits on the belated arrival of the Norwich wide man in whom he appears to invest considerable hope, opportunity knocked for Robbie Brady as the man given the nod ahead of James McClean to replace Aiden McGeady. In the end, however, perhaps the biggest lesson Trapattoni will take from this game is that his most reliable finisher continues to be the other Robbie, Mr Keane

In his match programme notes, Wales manager Chris Coleman observed that “the August friendly is a difficult one — the players have spent pre-season with their clubs, the league campaign kicks off this weekend and they are suddenly on international duty for two or three days”.

As it happens, last night’s was the last of the August friendlies before a new international calendar kicks in, but for all the understandable reticence there might be on the part of players, the potential significance of a good performance just weeks ahead of World Cup action would not have been lost either on the likes of Brady, Wes Hoolahan and, returning between the posts in place of the injured David Forde, Keiren Westwood.

But, the way the largely dreary proceedings panned out, none of those contenders will have much reason to look back on this night with fondness — if they can remember it at all.

The watching Gareth Bale was, of course, the missing man for Wales, with Coleman fielding an otherwise strong team, but it was the visitors who took the early initiative. Hoolahan showed his usual lovely touches but, no doubt worryingly from Trapattoni’s point of view, also got knocked off the ball a little too easily on more than one occasion

When, in what was the first Welsh attack, the old war horse Craig Bellamy won and then took a corner in the 14th minute, it proved to be a baptism of fire for Westwood, the keeper so badly fluffing his contact with the ball that he had to consider himself very lucky when impressive Welsh skipper Ashley Williams couldn’t profit at the far post.

In the 22nd minute, the 50-cap man Glenn Whelan came close to opening the scoring for Ireland with a low angled drive just past the post and then, after Walters and Brady had switched wings, the latter made good inroads into the box only to shoot way over the top. Worse was to follow in terms of lack of a clinical finish, however, as Shane Long ballooned over with the goal at his mercy.

The home side looked threatening whenever Jonny Williams — the great young hope of Welsh football — got on the ball in the classic No 10 position but, over the course of the first half, it seemed that Westwood was more in danger of succumbing to a self-inflicted wound, as he badly scuffed a kicked clearance from a short back pass.

Five minutes from the break, Brady injected a bit of class with a swerving effort just past the post but the last little eruption of action in a tepid half came at the other end, with Seamus Coleman stopping Williams in his tracks with a superb tackle.

Trapattoni sent on McClean for Brady at the start of the second half and, from almost his first touch, the Wigan player injected a little more zip into the Irish attack. And there was a good moment for Westwood in the 55th minute as the keeper did well to keep out a curling Bellamy free-kick.

The proximity of the Premier League kick-off was clearly evident in the raft of substitutions which began on the hour mark — Bellamy going off and Darren O’Dea and Paul Green coming on for, respectively, O’Shea and Whelan.

And then, with just over 20 minutes left, there was a moment to cherish for Paddy Madden, the young Yeovil hotshot getting to make his senior debut as a substitute for Hoolahan who, it’s fair to say, did not have the most rewarding of nights.

In the 69th minute, Glyn Myhill made a terrific save to prevent Long giving Ireland the lead and, with 10 minutes remaining, the keeper was at it again to deny Madden what would have been a fairytale goal, with McClean also coming close to grabbing his first goal on the rebound.

But it wasn’t to be: this simply wasn’t a fairytale kind of night in Cardiff.

WALES: Myhill, Gunter, Davies, Ledley (King 60), Ricketts, A Williams (C), Allen (Crofts 86), Bellamy (Vokes 59), Collinson (C Davies 82), J Williams, Robson-Kanu (Taylor 74).

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Westwood, Coleman, Clark, O’Shea (O’Dea 60), Wilson, Walters (Sammon 84), McCarthy, Whelan (Green 60), Brady (McClean 46), Hoolahan (Madden 69), Long (Keogh 74).

Referee: Pavel Kralovec.