Martin O’Neill: We must be better at creating chances

Hordur Bjorgvin Magnusson.

Few enough of us will be able to remember the name of last night’s only goalscorer in the years to come and that seems just about right after the sort of game in which the real winners in these things are the few dozen club managers for whom no news tends to be good news.

For Martin O’Neill, it served its purpose. Blood a few players, get through the evening without anything like another major injury and decompress after an international window that delivered a decent point against Wales but no goals across 180 minutes and a devastating injury for the captain Seamus Coleman.

If there was one undisputed positive from an Irish perspective then it had to be the performance of Daryl Horgan who was brought on for his senior international debut 62 minutes into a game that spluttered from start to finish.

Horgan was ushered on to the field by a standing ovation from sections of the crowd — no pressure there — and he injected an element of pace and penetration into a game in which John Egan, Conor Hourihane, and Andy Boyle also made their senior bows.

“There were a number of players making debuts and that’s great for them to go out there and wear an Irish shirt,” said O’Neill.

“The overriding fact is we lost the game and, while it is not a competitive match, it would have been nice to have won after Friday evening. We conceded from a set-piece and we had a lot of ball in the second-half.

"Daryl Horgan came on and caused a lot of problems on the field. He crossed a few balls in there and we just weren’t able to finish them off.”

That toothlessness is down to more than just the strikers. Ireland continue to look pedestrian for far too long during an average 90 minutes and the sight of Robbie Brady stationed at left-back on a night when he captained his country for the first time was frustrating.

O’Neill admitted it had crossed his mind to play the Burnley man further forward but, whatever the personnel placements or tactical setup, he will surely spend a fair degree of time between now and the next qualifier, at home to Austria in June, pondering how to field a team with greater cut and thrust.

“It’s not like Iceland created much either. We had lots of possession in the second-half but creating clearcut chances is something we will have to do better.”

O’Neill made the point that Champions League and World Cup finals have been decided on how teams handle setpieces and watching his wall dissolve for the goal must have been twice as annoying after the manner in which the Welsh were kept at bay.

That’s what modern sportspeople sometimes call ‘learnings’ and the four players making their debuts will have gathered up a large smattering of those.

“The players now will obviously go back and resume their club duties which are very important and, from my own point of view, I hope they avoid serious injury and I will hope that we have a few others back (from injury) when we meet up next as well.”