‘I’ve never played in anything like it before’, says Brady on Bosnian fog

By Ger McCarthy

Martin O’Neill and his players didn’t hide their delight at the earning a 1-1 draw in Zenica on Friday night whilst also admitting there is plenty of work to done before qualification for next summer’s European Championships is attained.

“Well it (the tie) is still alive and Robbie’s goal has helped us greatly,” admitted the Irish manager.

“The concession of the goal towards the end has put a dampener on things but the pitch was very lively tonight and we tried to cope with it as best we could and cope with the opposition at the same time. We are still fighting.

“Naturally I’m delighted with the side tonight and delighted with them since I’ve come in. The attitude and commitment has been fantastic, we might lack certain things but at the end of the day we have enthusiasm and drive. We have a battle on next Monday night but the players have shown that they are ready for it.”

Robbie Brady’s goal escaped most eyes due to the thick fog blanketing the stadium in Zenica but O’Neill was just happy for his side to get on the score-sheet even though he had little view of Brady’s strike.

“The answer is not a great deal. I was concerned at one stage in the second half that the game might be called off because of the fog. The linesman on our side said he could see things pretty clearly which news to me.

“Robbie Brady has done brilliantly to score the goal and just for a few minutes gave us real hope. Naturally, I’m very disappointed to have conceded the goal shortly after but defensively we were very strong and our two centre-backs were excellent tonight.

“We have something to play for on Monday night. We are still in the tie, that’s the main thing.”

“I caught the goalkeeper out at his near post so I was happy to see it go in,” admitted Republic of Ireland goal-scorer Robbie Brady.

“It is a shame we didn’t hold out but it is still a good result away from home and we will put in a better performance on Monday. It is not a bad result but there were little things like preventing their goal and not holding out for the last ten minutes that we need to work on.

“They (Bosnia) have some good players that can hurt us but we hopefully can keep a few of them quiet on Monday night. We need to up our game put still, we dug in tonight and got a result.

“We have a big squad and more than enough quality to progress. As for the fog or smoke or whatever it was, I’ve never played in anything like it before but it is done now and we go again on Monday.”