Red card ruins Jack Moylan's night but 45 minutes enough to suggest more in him

Cruel doesn't cover it, but if Moylan’s night was ruined needlessly, then he had done more than enough to suggest we'll be seeing him again.

Ireland’s Jack Moylan leaves the field after being shown a red card. Pic: Bryan Keane/Inpho

A friendly against Qatar a couple of weeks before a World Cup that Ireland didn’t qualify for? Not the type of invitation to get the juices flowing. 

Unless you were Jack Moylan. Jack played like he had been buzzing at the thoughts of this.

Only 12 days since an international debut against Grenada that he had marked with a hat-trick, here he was recalled to the squad and returned to the starting XI against a side hit by a Callum Robinson three-for when they were here in 2021.

A home debut with friends and family looking on. Glorious.

Now look, Qatar are actually four places higher than Ireland – and over 100 above Grenada – in the official Fifa rankings. Qatar are actually going to the World Cup. But Qatar is also a side that has lost to Kyrgyzstan and Zimbabwe in the last year.

They failed to exit their group at December’s Asian Championship and players a couple of weeks out from the world’s biggest tournament tend to view these games as a necessary evil and being fit after the 90 minutes is the main priority.

Ireland had faced Asian sides five times in the past in Dublin and won them all on a combined score of 13-0. Yep, Moylan could have been forgiven for fancying his chances of bagging another goal or two.

Heimir Hallgrimsson’s teamsheet would have added to his confidence.

The Irish manager had served notice of his intention to run with an experienced crew before integrating a few more of the new faces into operations when they face Canada over there early next month. He was true to that.

“It’s exciting for us to see him against a better opponent and with these guys around him,” said the boss pre-game.

Moylan was on it from the start. 

His boss at Lincoln, Michael Skubala, called him a magic man after the brace he bagged against Burton Albion in January, but the eleven goals he scored were supported by seven assists and he was an all-round pest here.

There wasn’t three minutes played when he swung in a beauty of a free-kick that glanced into the net off the head of Nathan Collins. 

Football has changed, but the ability to ping a good dead ball still carries a high premium. Great start for the lad.

Moylan was sharp as a tack around the park too. 

He set Seamus Coleman up for a cross that ended with a Troy Parrott shot from distance, and there was a chip of a cross in the direction of the AZ Alkmaar man and Liam Scales that could have brought more profit.

The thought had actually struck early on, after his first full-blooded tackle on a Qatari, that he might have been benefiting from the presence of a Northern Irish referee rather than an official from a nation less attuned to the physical stuff.

That changed on the stroke of half-time when he challenged Jassem Gaber for a loose ball and Jamie Robinson felt it worthy of a straight red card. 

It was an appalling decision but one perfectly in keeping with modern football’s instinctive aversion to physical contact.

Moylan’s studs were up, but what does that phrase even mean? Studs go ‘up’ in all sorts of ways over the course of 90 minutes. 

He went for the ball, his studs caught the standing foot of Gaber on the way down. He didn’t rake the opponent’s leg.

Rash? Maybe. A red? God, no.

There’s no doubt but that the referee’s actions were influenced by the fact that Moylan’s full-on approach saw him bumping into Gaber and upending the Qatari, whose overreaction probably sealed the Irishman’s fate.

Even Hallgrimmson couldn’t console him as he held his face and trudged down the tunnel. Cruel doesn't cover it, but if Moylan’s night was ruined needlessly, then he had done more than enough in that 45 minutes to suggest we'll be seeing him again.