Roy Keane knows better than most cost of failure

Whatever about Ireland’s decline to becoming an outlier of European football, comments by Roy Keane would have us believe it wasn’t avoidable.

The Ireland assistant was at his ebullient best during Thursday’s fundraiser for Barretstown, regaling the packed Olympia Theatre with tales of yesteryear, but it was his staunch defence of the reign he and Martin O’Neill are presiding over that caused most bafflement.

After six games of their first campaign with the dream ticket, Ireland sit fourth in Group D with nine points. Six of those were accrued against Georgia and Gibraltar.