Martin O’Neill: For the moment, it’s only Georgia on my mind

Martin O’Neill yesterday used the word “renaissance” to describe where Georgia are at on the back of that 1-0 victory against Scotland which has breathed fresh life into Ireland’s hopes of qualifying for France 2016.

Considering that tonight’s visitors to the Aviva are still second from bottom in Group D and have lost all but five competitive games on the road in the last 10 years, it was a rare excursion into hyperbole by the normally cautious manager — and one he wasn’t about to repeat in relation to his own side, despite a popular perception since Friday’s results in Tbilisi and Faro that Ireland’s qualifying campaign has suddenly swung from bust to boom.

“We’ve all got a habit here of getting ahead of ourselves,” he warned. “I heard something about how it’s ‘ours to lose’ now. But we’ve still got games against Germany and Poland. We’ve got this tough game here against a resurgent Georgia side who’ve come here with plenty of confidence having just beaten Scotland.