Irish U21s crash out in Israel

Don Given's Republic of Ireland today kissed goodbye to their chances of qualifying for the UEFA Under-21 Championship finals.

The Republic of Ireland today kissed goodbye to their chances of qualifying for the UEFA Under-21 Championship finals.

Boss Don Givens insisted his sides qualification would be over if his side failed to beat Israel at the Municipal Stadium in Herzliya – and his young side were sent crashing, with two early goals proving costly.

Givens had warned his side before the game they could not afford to lose another match if they were to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for their first finals from Group Four.

Autumn defeats to Switzerland and France, after starting the campaign so brightly with a convincing win over Cyprus, had proved damaging.

Givens insisted his players needed to take 13 points from the remaining five matches to clinch a top-two finish in their group, but he could not have envisaged a more disastrous start.

Less than two minutes after Sheffield Wednesday’s Glenn Whelan had been booked for a third-minute foul on Shai Abutbul, Israel took the lead.

From Moshe Ohayon’s corner, Yaniv Azrane rose unopposed to flick a header from eight yards beyond Notts County goalkeeper Saul Deeney.

Within a minute Ireland suffered another bitter blow, with Leeds centre-back Henry McStay stooping to clear a long-range shot from Ohayon, only to inadvertently head past the wrong-footed and unfortunate Deeney.

McStay was part of a radically-revamped defence shorn of the services of the suspended Paddy McCarthy and injured Stephen Kelly, with Manchester United’s Paul McShane stepping in to make his debut.

Up front, with all-time leading scorer Stephen Elliott promoted to the senior side, Given looked to Brentford’s Jay Tabb and Daryl Murphy of eircom League side Waterford United for the goals.

But they were starved of chances once Ireland finally settled to control the remainder of a first half in which McStay eventually went on to atone for his earlier indiscretion.

Manchester City winger Willo Flood delivered the perfect inswinging free-kick from the right for McStay to plant a firm header beyond Israel goalkeeper Tom Almadon.

At that stage Ireland looked good value to go on and salvage something from the match, but their goal came under siege at the start of the second period and seven minutes after the restart they were again cast two goals adrift.

McShane had already blocked one effort on the line from Shlomi Arbeitman and McStay had thrown himself in front of a drive from Ohayon, who also saw an acutely-angled shot saved by Deeney, before he was eventually beaten again.

After an Ohayon corner found its way back to the Ashdod winger, he delivered a far-post ball to Abutbul – whose header back into the danger area found Arbeitman for a close-range header into the top left-hand corner.

The scoreline could have been worse if Serbian referee Dragomir Tanovic had not waved away three penalty appeals which followed.

One was a cast-iron certainty, when Longford Town’s Stephen Paisley brought down Liran Cohen inside the area – but Tanovic pointed to a spot outside the box.

The fact Ireland failed to conjure up a single chance during the second half speaks volumes for undoubtedly their worst performance of the campaign.