King’s troops sow seeding of hope

Republic of Ireland 3 Kazakhstan 1

Whether it was for one night only will be something the new manager of Ireland must address, of course, but for the loyal supporters who bothered to show up at a less than half-full Aviva Stadium – the official attendance was 21,700 — this was at least the kind of uplifting if scarcely flawless performance which will have sown seeds of hope for brighter days ahead

That said, it would clearly be ill-advised to read too much into a victory over one of the qualifying group’s two weakest sides, especially in the context of what was, after all, the final game at the end of long campaign and one, lest we forget, which was even more unrewarding for Khazakhstan than it was for Ireland.