Martin O’Neill: Long balls not in our gameplan

With one game to go in the international calendar year, Ireland’s 2018 stats make for grim reading: Played 8, won 1, drew 3, lost 4, goals for 4, goals against 10.

Football managers will always try to accentuate the positive but, faced with the unavoidable reality of those numbers, Martin O’Neill has no option but to concede that there has been precious little sign of progress for Ireland since that 5-1 mauling by Denmark brought 2017 to a brutal halt.