Ireland display thrills Martin O’Neill

Martin O’Neill was understandably beaming at the result in Chisinau, not least because his team had repaired some self-inflicted damage which, had it gone untreated, could have put a very different gloss on the night.

“I was delighted with the performance,” he said. “Having scored early through Shane Long, we had a couple of chances to extend the lead and put the game beyond them, but didn’t happen.

“Instead we had a real lapse of concentration before half-time and had to put it right. It was not just Shane Duffy (at fault). We have the ball three or four yards from their touchline, the fourth official has already put two minutes up, and we lose the ball. You could mention three or four things that could have happened, but the player broke through from his own half and scored the goal.

“It was a real setback as we had dominated the game and we hadn’t looked in any serious trouble. So we had to put it right in the second half. We did and we deserved to win.”

O’Neill was particularly happy to hail the all-round contribution of two-goal hero James McClean.

“James is so whole-hearted and puts everything into a match,” he said, “and what he’s now doing more of is he’s getting himself into goal-scoring position, as well as doing all that tracking back. And that’s great. I also thought that when Jon Walters moved to centre-forward (after Shane Long went off), he was exceptional. And Seamus Coleman too was fantastic for us again tonight, He’s a really good footballer.”

Adding to the overall sense of satisfaction for the manager were the results in the group’s other two games, with Serbia beating Austria 3-2 in Belgrade and Wales being held at home by Georgia in a 1-1 draw. The upshot is that, with Austria in Vienna to come next month, Ireland are now top of the table with Serbia, level on points, and just one in arrears on goal difference.

“The match in Cardiff didn’t surprise me,” said O’Neill, “although I thought the only thing might be that Georgia would have gone bit of a downer (after the result in Dublin). But I think it can be forgotten that they can play, the really can play. As for Serbia, I said before that anyone who finishes ahead of them will go very close.

“So for us to win against Moldova was pretty big. It’s too early in the group to call things, it would be lunacy to do that. But it was great to win away from home and in the manner in which we did.”