Comment: Ireland a penalty miss from making the most of a hard sell

There was plenty of empty seats but those who were there saw a good evening's work from the home side.

Republic of Ireland interim head coach John O'Shea after the international friendly. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

No new manager. No tournament in the summer to whet the appetite. No Kevin De Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois or Romelu Lukaku in the opposition ranks. The result was always going to be rows of empty, green seats.

There’s probably no such thing as the ideal time or day for a game anymore, but Saturday at 5pm in Dublin, on what turned out to be a bitterly cold and windy March afternoon, is not the window you would choose when trying to sell interest in a friendly.

The FAI – and here’s a shock! – didn’t help themselves by pushing bundles for this meeting with Belgium and Tuesday evening’s follow-up against Switzerland. A policy that made the double-header especially unappealing for anyone living beyond the M50.

If the sight of the Boys in Green belting out the national anthem on live TV for the first time in 2024 actually did prompt an urge to splash the cash for the Swiss game then the FAI’s official ticket site was down at the time anyway.

Never change, lads. Actually, please do.

The association’s website was still advertising those two-game bundles when it popped back up online during the game and, look, no-one is disputing the fact that these ‘products’ are a desperately hard sell even if they got the basics right.

It’s nine months and seven games since the Republic of Ireland last played a ‘meaningful’ game of senior men’s football. That was the 2-1 Euro 2024 qualifier loss to Greece in Athens. Everything since, especially Kenny’s last few months in charge, has been limbo.

This one hardly held much more promise.

Who now remembers that Sean Thomas’ one and only game in charge, in 1973, was away to Norway? Did Don Givens’ or Noel Kings’ experiences as caretaker managers against Greece, Wales, Brazil, Germany or Kazakhstan burn themselves into the collective memory?

These things are about marginal gains. Not the one per centers that win trophies, more like the bits and pieces that a DIY enthusiast might potter around with before their partner calls in the electrician or the plumber.

That John O’Shea, a superb servant and a likeable sort who has designs on a career in the dugout, gets to manage his country is fantastic and the cheer that swept the stadium when Brian Kerr appeared on the big screens couldn’t help but prompt a smile.

O’Shea had ticked a lot of the right boxes in the past week with his trademark calm and he scored an open goal in giving Sammie Szmodics a long-awaited debut at the age of 28 and on the back of his 27 goals this season.

The Blackburn Rovers player had a couple of chances to score a debut goal and he showed enough in an ability and instinct to access dangerous positions and passes to suggest that he can have a positive role under the new brains trust.

Seamus Coleman, Andrew Omobamidele and Robbie Brady got starts after periods where they all missed too much international football and the choice of Caoimhin Kelleher over Gavin Bazunu in goal made was always going to get a few tongues wagging.

If Belgium’s ersatz interest through the 90 minutes makes all this relative – they’ll surely be more engaged against England in Wembley on Tuesday - then there was still something to be taken for the organisation and the pressing.

Some of the football wasn’t bad either.

The penalty awarded to the home team after 28 minutes was harsh but then it could still be claimed as some deserved reward for their endeavour and enterprise. The only pity was that Evan Ferguson couldn’t convert and end a drought stretching back to late November.

As these things go, though, it was a decent day’s work.