Fast start not always signpost to future

“It was tremendous, a bit of a fairytale.”

It’s not how most Ireland fans remember his reign but in Steve Staunton’s defence he was right at the time. He said it after his ill-fated spell as Ireland manager began with a sparkling 3-0 friendly victory over a Sweden side that would reach the last 16 of the 2006 World Cup finals just three months later.

Irish fans hoped it was a sign of things to come; ultimately it was a false dawn.

Three years earlier Staunton’s predecessor in the Ireland dugout, Brian Kerr, had begun his reign in similarly encouraging fashion. As is the case with tonight’s friendly against Latvia, the build-up to the friendly against Scotland in February 2003 was dominated by Roy Keane.

Having initially made himself available to return to the international fold following the departure of Saipan nemesis Mick McCarthy, Keane, citing his troublesome hip, announced on the eve of the game that he would not in fact be returning, a decision he subsequently reversed.

In Keane’s absence Ireland proved too good for a dismal Scotland side.

“We were always in control,” Kerr reflected.

Ireland would have a formidable friendly record under Kerr, who boasts the highest win percentage record (54.5%) of any Republic manager, but the failure to win key qualification games against high-quality opposition would prove his undoing.

Eoin Hand also had an encouraging start to his time in charge as Ireland were narrowly beaten 1-0 by world champions Argentina at Lansdowne Road in May 1980, while John Giles also started well, Miah Dennehy scoring the winner as Ireland beat Poland 1-0 at Dalymount Park in October 1973.

Interestingly, no manager who guided Ireland to major tournaments started with a victory. Giovanni Trapattoni needed a last-gasp Andy Keogh goal to avoid going down to a defeat to Serbia in his first match in charge, at Croke Park in May 2008.

Twelve years earlier McCarthy’s spell in charge got off to an inauspicious start with the Boys in Green losing 2-0 to Russia at Lansdowne Road, but the game is best remembered for the dismissal of Keane for lashing out at Omari Tetradze with the game lost.

A decade earlier Jack Charlton’s reign started with a home friendly defeat in a game he recalled in his autobiography as being “notable for three things. Ian Rush got the only goal for Wales, their keeper Neville Southall got a broken ankle, and I got the reputation for forgetting the names of my own players”.

Despite that Charlton guided Ireland to unprecedented heights and his achievements in the Ireland dugout as well as those of McCarthy and Trapattoni show why rash judgements can often be wrong ones.

While Ireland should have too much for Latvia, whatever happens at the Aviva Stadium tonight, Martin O’Neill and Ireland supporters would be wise to remember it’s not where you start from, it’s where you get to that matters.