No 11th-hour reprieve to brighten Ireland's nightmare 2020
Ireland's James Collins reacts after a missed opportunity on goal during last night's Uefa Nations League B match against Bulgaria at Aviva Stadium. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
A strange sort of night on Lansdowne Road. Even by 2020's standards.
The Republic got the draw they needed to avoid relegation to Group C of the Nations League and send the visitors down instead but a win, allied to the right results in Belgrade and Belfast, and they would have rescued a second seed spot for next month's World Cup qualifying draw.
Here's where regret will take root. Serbia duly obliged by thumping Russia while Northern Ireland deprived Romania of the win they needed. The only weak link in that unlikely chain of events appeared in Dublin where Stephen Kenny's side drew yet another blank.
It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry at this point.
Third pot it is, so. It may not matter all that much. Ireland could yet get a 'softer' draw from the third tier and the likelihood is that they still won't make Qatar in 2022 given the admission policy for the global game is far more testing than the Euros.
Still, that second seeding would have lightened the mood after the last few months in which the side's ability to perform has been sorely tested by the loss of players through Covid, injuries, personal reasons, suspension and David McGoldrick's retirement.
There are those who would place Kenny himself among the list of reasons holding the side back but the hope is that the manager has a more familiar list of players available to him when the next window opens up in March and they can start afresh.
For now the court is adjourned, though it doesn't look good.
That's seven games now without a goal, more than 11 hours of football in real time, and it all means that the not-so-new manager will push through to 2021 and that aforementioned qualification campaign without a win in his first eight games in charge of the senior side.
A long winter just got longer.
This was a horrible night for football. Two patchwork and exhausted teams asked up for one more dance at the end of another interminable international week and on a filthy, squally night when the whistling of the wind almost drowned out the players' imprecations.
For all that, Ireland were dreadfully poor in the first half. While somewhat better after the interval, they still couldn't do enough to help themselves, even if they will wonder just how it is that they didn't disturb the Bulgarian net at least once.
The loss of so many players through his first three international windows as manager has forced Kenny into naming his strongest possible XI for virtually every fixture. That held again last night, even if the term 'strongest' has long since lost its true meaning.
Only four of his starting side hailed from Premier League clubs. Of those, Dara O'Shea was the only one who has been banking regular game time. The other top-tier representative was Celtic's Shane Duffy who must be going to bed in his jersey given his workload of late.
The front three was made up of Daryl Horgan from Championship side Wycombe Wanderers and the League Two pairing of James Collins and Ronan Curtis. All three put in solid shifts. Swansea City's Ryan Manning made his debut at left-back.
Bulgaria were a weakened lot too.
Without 10 players, seven of them first-teamers, they still played much the better football for long spells and came close to fashioning a number of opportunities in a first half in which Ireland didn't help themselves.
Too many loose balls put the hosts into needless trouble at the back. Both Manning and O'Shea almost let men in on their inside and there were countless other times when a white shirt took flight through the middle and in acres of space.
Ireland's chief threat in the first 45 was Robbie Brady's left boot from dead balls. Three times he sent in brilliant inswingers: the first of them sailed by everyone; Shane Duffy glanced the second wide; and the third was parried away by the Bulgarian stopper.
Two other openings came and went. The first when a deflected Horgan cross flew past the post and the inrushing James Collins. The second when the Luton Town striker somehow directed a header over the bar from three yards after great work by the same winger.
Collins had another two attempts early in the second half, the second a volley that skirted the wrong side of the post, but Curtis completely fluffed his lines when sending one airborne from 18 yards out and nobody within earshot.
It took a brilliant block by Duffy to deny Kristian Dimitrov the opener midway though the second period and Brady almost put Ireland's ageing duck out of its misery with a screamer from 25 yards that rebounded off the crossbar.
Ireland continued to press, with Jack Byrne impressing off the bench, but they wouldn't come as close again. Another night to test the eyes and the faith.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
