Keane: A special night but points the most important thing

By Alan Smith, Dublin

By no means was it a perfect performance but Ireland got the job done last night against the Faroe Islands and, crucially, they now head into the autumn qualifiers with a good chance of claiming second place in their group.

On the evening he made a record-breaking 126th international appearance, the narrative was always going to focus on Robbie Keane and it was entirely fitting that he was the one who decided the outcome with all three goals.

Remarkably, this was just his second hat-trick in a green shirt but with his total goal tally now standing at 59, and a promise of a lot more football still to come, there was much for the 32-year-old to savour at full-time – even if, typically, he attempted to shift the focus towards the squad rather than his own personal achievement.

“It couldn’t have worked out better for me but in a campaign, it’s not about individuals, it’s about the team” he said. “It’s a special night obviously, but the most important thing was getting the three points.”

Bettering the goal difference, which stood at -1 prior to kick-off, was always going to rank high on the priority list, especially with both Austria and Sweden ahead of Ireland in that particular column on the table, and Keane admitted the message to the players at half-time was to score as many as possible.

“Goal difference is massive. I said it at half time, we can’t stop, we need to keep going and get as many goals as possible. We got three, so hopefully we can worry about getting points against the other teams rather than goals.

“All in all it was a good performance. It’s a privilege and an honour to put this jersey on, it still means an awful lot to me. Long may it continue.”

There could be little arguing that he was the story of the night, but other positives could be extracted from the evening too.

Behind him, Wes Hoolahan lived up to the hype with a strong passing display. He provided the ball to Aiden McGeady and Seamus Coleman to set up Keane for the opening two goals and, generally, set the tempo from an Irish point of view.

It even led to manager Giovanni Trapattoni, the most stubborn of figures in the game, admitting he might have wrongly overlooked the Norwich City player previously. “Maybe we ignored him in the past. (He has a) good attitude, creative. He's also tough, which is good.”

Keane, meanwhile, felt it was a “perfect night for Wes to play.”

Leading up to kick-off, there was plenty of optimism around a sun-drenched Lansdowne Road. Mostly because Trapattoni named the most attack-minded side of, arguably, his reign, but also because the mood in the Irish camp this past fortnight has been hugely positive.

They have been together over a fortnight now, after the draw at Wembley and last Sunday’s procession against Georgia and their high spirits was also something Keane alluded to: “The whole two weeks together has been brilliant, we’ve bonded more this week in terms of the way we’ve played and conducted ourselves. It’s been a credit to the manager and everybody else.”

As starts go, Ireland’s couldn’t have been much better and although it took some time for a second to follow, one eye had already switched towards what was happening in Vienna. In the end, Austria overcame the Swedes by the odd goal in three.

With all three tied on eight points prior to kick-off, though the Swedes still enjoy a game in hand, it was hard to be fully sure what result would have suited Ireland more.

But it’s important to look at the wider picture: even before the campaign got underway, it was the autumn double-header, with Sweden at the Aviva on September 6 and a trip to Vienna four days later, which was going to decide the race for a play-off berth.

And although Ireland might be behind both in the goal difference column, there’s parity in the one that matters most.

“We obviously wanted to score more but I wouldn’t look at it too negatively. We just have to worry about ourselves now. Those two games are going to be make or break,” Keane added.

Spain at Yankee Stadium await next week in a friendly but regardless of what happens there, the most important thing is when the evenings start getting shorter and the business end of this campaign gets going, Ireland have momentum.

There’s a lot to be done if we’re to head to Rio, but at least there’s more than just a morsel of hope.