Poor performance for Ireland in Athens is a massive step backwards

BACKWARDS STEP: Ireland’s hopes of qualifying automatically for next summer’s European Championship were left hanging by a thread, Stephen Kenny’s team took another massive step backwards.  Pic: ©INPHO/Nikola Kristic

Let there be no talk of Greek tragedies because this was an act of self-sabotage. Deus ex machina? If only. On a night when Ireland’s hopes of qualifying automatically for next summer’s European Championship were left hanging by a thread, Stephen Kenny’s team took another massive step backwards.

The manager cast a bereft figure at full time in Athens as another referendum opens on his fit for this job. But beneath the polemics over style versus substance, the transparent reality this morning is that Ireland’s hopes of reaching another tournament are potentially over before they began. Again.