It’s no holiday as Robbie ready to rock Gibraltar

With a hat-trick against Gibraltar already under his belt, and 15 and counting to his credit in the MLS this season, Ireland’s 65-goal record-breaker Robbie Keane looks every inch the man to roll the Rock in Faro tonight.

Describing himself as “fit and raring to go”, Keane dismissed any idea that Ireland might be overtaken by the holiday mood in the Algarve. “We’re not here to play golf,” he pointed out, “we’re here to play football and win a football match.” The idea that, because the opposition is Gibraltar, winning this football match is almost easier done than said, gets little traction from a man who was one of the boys in green who barely survived a grim night in San Marino in 2007 when it took an injury time goal by Stephen Ireland to spare Ireland’s blushes in a 1-2 win.

What Keane now describes as “one of the worst (Irish) performances in a long time” reinforced the lesson that “you always have to be careful and respectful and treat every game like any other game — and all week the staff have reminded us of that.” Asked if, as a veteran with time against him, qualifying games matter even more to him now, Keane was at his barbed best.