Kenny harks back to Cyprus, Wales and Macedonia to colour abject record
Kenny at a Republic of Ireland Press Conference.
Stephen Kenny has once again tried to cite previous regimes to apply context to his disastrous Ireland reign that limps to an end tomorrow.
The FAI board will next week endorse a recommendation from the Director of Football Marc Canham to seek a new boss after the country’s worst qualifying campaign for 50 years.
Saturday’s defeat in the Netherlands dabbed a sixth loss in eight on Ireland from their European qualifying series. Their six points from 32 were extracted from a Gibraltar side whacked 14-0 by France on Saturday.
Kenny has been in the job three-in-a-half years and his previous third place finishes in the two Nations League groups and World Cup qualifying laid the foundations for an abysmal record of just six wins from 29 competitive games.
Despite the Dutch mauling Ireland in terms of possession and chances, Kenny resorted to his trademark positive spin by plucking historical defeats and flinging them the conversation.
Macedonia’s 3-2 win sent Mick McCarthy’s Ireland into a playoff for the 1998 World Cup that they lost against Belgium, Steve Staunton’s reign was floored by losing 5-2 in Cyprus while a 4-1 humbling at the hands of Wales was the nadir of Martin O’Neill’s final year of 2018.
"Listen, we played Holland the other night, one of the best teams in Europe,” he began at today’s pre-match press conference. “People will have their own opinions on it but I thought it was a good game of football. No question, Holland were the better team. We fought to the end of that game, we didn't create enough, we know that, and we defended for our lives when we needed to.
“It wasn't like we lost 4-1 to Wales or got hammered in Cyprus or Macedonia the other night, it was a tight game in Holland that we lost 1-0 and deserved to lose. It was one of those games, I think a bit of perspective on that, you know?"
Again, in the face of dire results, Kenny talked up attendances – or predictions of them – to demonstrate the public’s support for his project.
At his squad announcement, he had erroneously stated that 15,000 turned up to see the last visit of New Zealand, the second-last game of McCarthy’s second spell at the helm in 2019.
“No, no, listen,” he replied when a follow-up question on warped perspective was posed.
“We’ve New Zealand tomorrow. I will get criticised for mentioning figures, but I just asked Cria [O'Neill, FAI ticket office] how many are going tomorrow? She said it's up to 41,000.
“There's nobody in Europe getting that, not many countries in Europe, getting crowds like that for the lesser nations. It's a credit to the team and a credit to the players. Results have been up and down but certainly they identify with the players. There is great support there, which is fantastic. New Zealand tomorrow, they are quite an open and expansive team, 4-3-3, they play through the thirds.
“They’ve a couple of players, [Marko] Stameni playing in the Champions League, [with Crvena Zvezda], Chris Wood in the Premier League. They are actually a good football team, we have watched them. They make the pitch big and try to play. It's a good game tomorrow.
“We will make changes from the other night, for different reasons, freshen up and for some people to play. We will try to finish the season on a strong note.
“The Irish support has been amazing home and away, we had big crowd away to Gibraltar, another big crowd in Holland; all the games. Packed stadiums for matches against Latvia and Gibraltar, close to full houses.
“There's been great support and it's not easy midweek with people living all over Ireland, and people from abroad getting in, on a Tuesday night, so I don't know if we will get that crowd, but there are 41,000 sold and that's a testament to the team.” Nathan Collins misses out having damaged ligaments against the Dutch while Evan Ferguson is doubtful after being forced off on Saturday with hamstring tightness.
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