Pragmatic King admits result must come first

Noel King is a football fan and a football manager — but it will be the latter not the former which dictates how Ireland set out to play against Kazakhstan tomorrow night.

“All of you will be telling me that we should be more attacking and if I wasn’t in this position then I’d be saying the same thing,” he admits, “but the reality is that you have to respect your opponent.

“Obviously we like to attack as much as we can but the nature of football is that you have to defend, and defend well, in these games. If you don’t then you can end up with egg on your face.”