Ireland U21 boss Jim Crawford hails Will Smallbone impact
Republic of Ireland's Tyreik Wright celebrates scoring their side's third goal of the game with team-mate Evan Ferguson (right) during the UEFA European U21 Championship 2023 Qualifying match at the Tallaght Stadium, Dublin. Niall Carson/PA Wire.
There’s nothing quite like a burst of youth to lift the gloom of Irish football.
Two days after one of the worst results in the history of the senior international team, the U21 pushed themselves on track to create a better type of history.
This second swashbuckling win in the space of four days leaves Ireland are on the brink of clinching their first-ever Euro play-off – which could be confirmed by Thursday.
Jim Crawford’s side did to Montenegro at Tallaght what they also achieved against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday by scoring three times.
Once again, Will Smallbone was the architect in chief of the triumph – thumping in the opener four minutes before the break and setting up a second for Liam Kerrigan on 56 minutes.
The watching Stephen Kenny could do worse than promoting the Southampton midfielder for Wednesday’s Nations League game against Ukraine, given the lack of midfield spark on Saturday in the defeat to Armenia.
Tyreik Wright slotted home the third following a cross by substitute Evan Ferguson and Viktor Đukanović’s reply 10 minutes was always going to be a consolation.
This victory – coupled with Italy’s 3-0 win in Luxembourg – makes the permutations in the final week of the regulation qualifiers straightforward.
The table sees Italy ahead on 20 points, Ireland on 19, with Sweden two points further adrift.
Unless second seeds Sweden beat the Italians on Thursday, then the runner-up berth and play-off place is theirs.
A draw in that fixture would also afford Ireland the dizzying opportunity of travelling to Ascoli for the final match on Tuesday week with group victory to play for.
This was an altogether different game to the last meeting of the teams on Montenegrin soil last year, Crawford admitting Ireland were bullied during a 2-1 win for the hosts.
Nikola Krstovic, who went to become a senior international, hardly got a sniff off Eiran Cashin, the Ireland centre-back enjoying a belated debut.
The Derby County first-teamer’s process for being eligible through his Leitrim relatives had dragged on for a couple of years, only being finalised on the day of the Bosnia match last week.
With Oisin McEentee dislocating his shoulder, a vacancy arose and Cashin’s experience in the Championship side just gone shaded rival Jake O’Brien for the spot.
Cashin was one of five changes to the side from Friday, a necessity Crawford justifiably defended.
“I’m exceptionally proud of the players and I think we showed it’s a squad game,” he said.
“The easy thing would be the same XI starts that played against Bosnia but we just felt we needed to freshen it up and it shows the group we have,” he said.
“Liam Kerrigan from UCD was one of those that came in with a fantastic performance.”
Still, Smallbone was the standout by a distance.
“Once Will gets settled in his club and plays consistently, there is every chance he’ll get called up to the senior squad,” noted Crawford. “His name has been bandied about with clubs in the Championship.”
The only shame about this vital victory was the paltry attendance of 3126, less than half of the Tallaght capacity.
Whatever about the closure of the M50 on Friday due to an accident affecting the first attendance, there was no excuse for such a disappointing turnout.
However, a recurring theme developed on social media of fans experiencing difficulty purchasing tickets online.
The FAI had gone to great lengths in promoting this pair of games, purchasing Twitter adverts and putting Crawford’s assistant John O’Shea onto the media schedule for the first time.
They got nowhere near the record of 7,231 that attended the visit of Italy in October 2019, a scoreless draw that featured Caoimhín Kelleher, Liam Scales, Adam Idah and a red-carded Troy Parrott.
Considering the probability of a two-legged play-off, the priority will be to ensure these history-makers are cheered on by a full house. That, according to Crawford, may be at a different venue.
“The group of players here do deserve a big crowd,” he lamented.
“You have to weigh in a lot of things, including the kick-off time and the bank holiday weekend.
“I’m sure there are factors, but we’ll see what happens with the play-off games. Do you play it in Tallaght Stadium or go somewhere else? All that has to be decided. But I do think the group of players here really deserve big crowds.”
B Maher; L O'Connor, E Cashin, M McGuinness, T Adaramola (A Lyons 83); W Smalbone, C Coventry; L Kerrigan, C Noss (G Kilkenny 63), T Wright; JJ Kayode (E Ferguson 63).
N Izevic; D Saletic, A Babic, O Obradovic, D Pesukic; N Janjic (P Vukcevic 69), M Brnovic (S Krstovic 60); V Dukanovic, Z Divanovic (V Strikovic 86), I Vukcevic (L Mijovic 59); N Krstovic.
J Petrik (Czech Rep).
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