THERE WERE NO late heroics from Ireland at Celtic Park tonight as they were outplayed and outscored by their hosts Scotland.
Martin O’Neill’s unbeaten competitive record was brought to an end as they were unable to replicate the spirited finales which produced late goals in this campaign against Georgia and Germany.
The talk all week revolved around the reception James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady would get and whether the former would even be fit to play. As it turned out, McCarthy didn’t make it — leaving the boo boys to focus on ex-Celtic winger McGeady. His every touch was met with a round of jeers and whistles, which in turn prompted Ireland fans to chant his name repeatedly.
The abuse continued throughout and the Everton man, possibly a little caught up by the occasion, earned himself a booking after just 15 minutes. In truth, McGeady and a number of his team-mates never really showed what they are capable of on a disappointing night.
O’Neill sprung a major surprise with his team selection in demoting captain, all-time record caps holder and top scorer Robbie Keane to the bench. It’s that rare an event that you have to go as far back as June 2001 to find the last time the striker was fit and dropped from a competitive international. Damien Duff was preferred to the then 21-year-old away to Estonia that night.
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In a call which shows the current manager isn’t afraid to make brave decisions, Shane Long was brought in to partner Stoke City’s Jon Walters as part of a new look front line.
Hindsight is a great thing but while the rest of the team were bunched around the halfway line, Walters had broken off to walk a lap of the pitch. One of the Irish journalists next to me had suggested he had been told he wasn’t starting. It turned out to be the opposite.
Alongside him, Shane Long, who is bang in form at club level after a difficult start to life on the South Coast, was favoured over Keane despite not featuring at all against Gibraltar and Germany.
If anyone needed proof that the Boys in Green had travelled in their droves, you only had to take a wander around Glasgow’s west end last night. Some of those visiting supporters took up their seats early, not only in the allocated away section, but also among the Tartan Army dotted around the other stands.
While heavy queues prevented many from making kick-off, others got in to soak up the atmosphere and with 25 minutes to kick-off, the first rendition of ‘Come on you Boys in Green’ rang around the ground. By 7.45pm, Celtic Park was hopping thanks to both sets of supporters, who seemed determined to outdo each other.
In fact, visiting supporters were so up for a sing-song that many decided to take part in the Scottish anthem Flowers of Scotland.
Aiden McGeady had a night to forget. Donall Farmer / INPHO
Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO
The football itself was far from pleasing on the eye and the opening 15 minutes were played at a frantic pace which led to plenty of misplaced passes and mistimed tackles.
The Stevens, Fletcher and Naismith, had been earmarked as danger men pre-match and the pair, along with Shaun Maloney, created the best passages of play for Gordon Strachan’s men.
As the game progressed, the home crowd grew in voice as their team grew in confidence and O’Neill will have been pleased that it was still scoreless at half-time.
Ireland continued to ride their luck when Chris Martin came close before Robbie Brady and Stephen Quinn were sent on to shore up the midfield, which was being completely overrun at that point.
It didn’t prove successful as Maloney curled a shot past Forde to earn the Tartan Army a deserved victory.
Not even the introduction of Keane could create a genuine goalscoring opportunity and had Grant Hanley’s late header which came off his own crossbar it would have been cruel on Scotland.
A draw would was always going to be a reasonable result but defeat means Ireland, Scotland and Germany will all end 2014 level on seven points with Poland a further three ahead.
Andy Murray’s Ma, shouldn’t you be on Strictly!? Keogh and Walters were good, we were very under pressure from the Scots especially at the end of the first half. Would have been happy with nil all if not for that cracker of a goal from Maloney.
Ya Stephen, substitutions were strange. We were left with no recognisable midfielder by the end! Quinn is more of a no 10. Thought he did well when he came on tho. Is it possible we had 3 wingers on by the end, mcclean, mcgeady and Brady! V strange. That was a very thin squad to be fair. Where are all the whelan haters now. He may pass the ball back alot but at least he passes the ball!
Inntal, you chauvinist cretin, some of our best sports people are women, Katie Taylor, à fine footballer also, Stephanie Roche is up for goal of the year, you going to tell them they can’t talk about football??
Don’t kid youselves folks, that was a very difficult atmosphere to play in for Ireland. We will do them in Dublin. Its results against Germany and Poland that really count. And never watch the RTE panelists, after the Germany result they proved they are just negative for the sake of it.
You don’t think we can beat Scotland in Dublin Chopper? We beat Scotland 1-0 in Dublin and we neutralise tonight’s result, 2-0 we overturn it. You think that’s delusional? They played the best game of their campaign so far and only beat us 1-0.
Oh God twas so depressing. They werent worth a shit. Twas like one of the bad games from the Jack Charlton era. I splashed out on a few cans of cider and i am sorry i bovvered.
Ireland away is the usual long ball standard. Seamus Coleman has never been so quiet. Martins away tactics very similar to traps unfortunately.. Shite to watch. Always look forward to international football when Ireland are playing but it’s just like a fridged girlfriend. Loads of expectation followed by a lack of excitement and an end goal
Thank God for the bottle of wine during that.That was like watching two teams from the bottom of the championship , and thank the other Gods for the other bottle in the fridge
Cant believe how anti-Irish the scots are …my God they really hate us …im disapointed cause ive always supported Scotland …alot of family living there ….im shocked to day the least .
Alot of rangers fans probally showed up.The Billy boys song was heard sang tonite.Thats normally sang by the bigoted no ireland fans and newco (rangers) fans. Most other scots don’t get involved in that rubbish.
I don’t see Ireland finishing 3rd. We ‘re a poor 4th at best. Lucky in Georgia, lucky in Germany but not tonight. I thought O’Neills selection was odd and then substitutions just plain weird. Gibson and Mcclean were off the pace.
Taking off Long was crazy, replaced by Brady , while McClean stayed on. Surely that should have been a straight swap. Certainly Brady contributed more than McClean. Then bringing Robbie on as a last desperate measure.
It’s no big deal, Ireland will still finish third in the group and maybe squeeze through to the euros in a play off. Why would anybody expect any different. That’s the teams level and it has been for a long time… But not to worry the real Irish team is playing In the Aviva on Sunday and that team is going to beat Australia the following week.. Because that’s their level!!
Trappatoni with an Irish accent and to think one of our better ex players assisted in that style of football…..disgraceful and backward…no chance of qualification with that style of football
Ward made at least 3 to 4 serious errors when he passed the ball out of defence. He didn’t make any that were punished, because McLean spent most of his evening covering and babysitting him – to a point, McLean ended up having little or no time to get forward and create anything on the wing.
I don’t fear Scotland after this game we will do them at home and they will drop points away to Georgia.. My worry is Poland and Germany.. Bad loss but were still in a very good place after away games to Germany and the Scots..
Ireland’s performances in competitions in recent times has always been substandard, we are unable to beat teams that matter in the qualifications. We have had some impressive draws, but there hasn’t been an impressive win by the Irish team in years, for example:
2014 WC Qualifiers: Draw + Loss to both Sweden & Austria, Lost twice to Germany.
2012 Euro Qualifiers: Won twice over Armenia, Drew twice with Slovakia, Drew + Loss to Russia.
2010 WC Qualifiers: Drew twice with Bulgaria & Italy
2008 Euro Qualifiers: Draw + Loss to both Sweden & Austria
2006 WC Qualifiers: Draw + Loss to France, Draw twice with both Switzerland and Israel.
Quite simply, if you cant beat the teams that matter the most you don’t stand a chance of qualifying.
I agree we have a shocking record of failing to beat anyone decent. However, strangely enough, it’s not true to say you have no chance of qualifying without beating the top teams. For example – in 2 of the last 3 campaigns, we qualified once and narrowly went out AET in a playoff once. That was without beating anyone decent in any of those campaigns.
We also qualified for the 1994 WC without beating anyone decent (drew twice with Denmark, lost one and drew one with Spain). And we got to the quarter finals of Italia 90 without winning a single game! You’ll never beat the Irish!
Below par performance from Ireland. One of those games the selection was about right, but too many players underperformed, and our wide players spent too much time and effort covering for the full backs. If you examine the time Ireland moved and passed the ball foward in the air, compared to Scotland’s better control and composure, it reveals the real story tonight. Hendrick and Gibson have some creativeness about them, but tactics reduced their impact. On paper, the Ireland selection and substitutions seemed to tip towards winning this game, but in the end it proved more warrior cry than wizardry.
Sure by the end we had only 1 recognisable midfielder in the middle, and that was quinn, who’s actually nearly more of a no 10. Strange. Having said that, injuries ravaged us, we haven’t enough strength in depth to lose Mccarthy, hoolihan, whelan and Reid. Plus Gibson wasn’t 100 percent fit. And where are all the whelan haters?? He might tend to pass the ball back, but at least he passes the ball!!!
He moved Walters into an out-and-out forward role, but again, even when we were chasing the game, MON still persisted with booting the ball forward and hoping to get something from a knock-down. This was nothing to do with the players on the pitch, but the way we were playing didn’t change.
In fairness Martin o Neil said in an interview he was worried where irish football is heading and he’s right. I myself am an awful Glenn wheelan basher but fcuk we needed him tonight not one irish player was able to hold onto the ball without heading it or kicking it away even when a player was 5 or 10 yards away from them. Pitiful stuff to watch.
I think the biggest joke was Roy Keane in a staring match with the ref , would’nt he just act professional and act his age , by god he’s a real hard man
Oh for the love of Jesus will ye rugby fans just f#%k off giving this heart and commitment shite like the players management etc. Don’t care. They gave it everything it wasn’t good enough simple as that.
Arthur it was a performance full of heart and commitment, that was the problem, you see in soccer you need guile, skill, subtlety etc. Running into lads and pushing them off the ball ain’t gonna cut it, stick to rugby if thats your thing
Without our best players we will always struggle. Ward is not good enough and Mcgeady doesn’t offer enough consistently but unless something drastic happens O’Neil will never drop him, Keogh was great so when Wilson comes back it would be a straight swap for me ward out Wilson in. Can’t understand him not taking off the 2 booked players especially in that type of game. Let’s hope the 2 new lads get a full 90 against the U.S, Mcgoldrick could be great for us he is in good form. Not over by a long shot 4 out of next 5 at home… COYBIG
Awful game. Completely overrun in midfield. Thought Hendrick was very poor. 90 mins of stupid fouls and hoofing. Is this meant to be an improvement on Trap?
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Ah well, sure, at least Ireland have their independence
Well we need to free the 6 counties first, but Tiocfaidh ár lá
Well said, Thomas
Don’t forget about us up here
Yea the Free Staters got their Independence…
Nothing free about it anymore im afraid
Andy Murray’s Ma, shouldn’t you be on Strictly!? Keogh and Walters were good, we were very under pressure from the Scots especially at the end of the first half. Would have been happy with nil all if not for that cracker of a goal from Maloney.
What planet are you on?
Walter had a shocking game!
I’d fancy my chances against him in. Sunday league match.
To be fair, he’d leather you!
Ya I’m a fan of Walters but I thought he offered nothing up front, how he won the man of the match award ill never know
Him and long considering service were very good. Substitutions were mind boggling
Can’t stand birds trying to talk about football
Ya Stephen, substitutions were strange. We were left with no recognisable midfielder by the end! Quinn is more of a no 10. Thought he did well when he came on tho. Is it possible we had 3 wingers on by the end, mcclean, mcgeady and Brady! V strange. That was a very thin squad to be fair. Where are all the whelan haters now. He may pass the ball back alot but at least he passes the ball!
Inntal, what are you talking about, why do you hate birds “trying” to talk about football?
“Take It Down From The Mast”
@Inntalitarian, are you Andy Gray?
Just for the record Robert. ..you’re a gobshi/te
Some man you are as well, hiding behind a sh*te anonymous avatar. I enjoy football and am entitled to my opinion, so GTF.
Good man hiding behind your keyboard.
Keep up the good work lad!
Where you wearing your Celtic jersey last night?
Inntal, you chauvinist cretin, some of our best sports people are women, Katie Taylor, à fine footballer also, Stephanie Roche is up for goal of the year, you going to tell them they can’t talk about football??
Dire stuff. No creativity and relying on hopeless long balls. Fair play to Scotland, fully deserved the win
Don’t kid youselves folks, that was a very difficult atmosphere to play in for Ireland. We will do them in Dublin. Its results against Germany and Poland that really count. And never watch the RTE panelists, after the Germany result they proved they are just negative for the sake of it.
Delusional Ronan
Spot on Donal. A dreadful performance against an equally limited but spirited Scots team.
That was a quality goal so fair play to them!
Rubbish ronan, the lads on rte said that everyone gave 110 percent tonight, but they also called out the worrying signs of the German performance
You don’t think we can beat Scotland in Dublin Chopper? We beat Scotland 1-0 in Dublin and we neutralise tonight’s result, 2-0 we overturn it. You think that’s delusional? They played the best game of their campaign so far and only beat us 1-0.
If we have hools and Mccarthy back fit we might beat them at home alright. Otherwise I wouldn’t be counting my chickens
B0llox Bocht, we have no reason to be afraid of anyone.
Woeful stuff! Hit and hope shite.
Oh God twas so depressing. They werent worth a shit. Twas like one of the bad games from the Jack Charlton era. I splashed out on a few cans of cider and i am sorry i bovvered.
Ah its all good sinead. Have one for me and drown your sorrows :)
Thanks Warren.. Sure it could be worse.. We’ll be better next game (i hope).. I hope i dont have a hanger in da morning
Occasion? Maybe we’re not as good as we’d like to think we are…… Scotland out thought, out fought and ultimately out played us.
Trust Ireland to draw with world champions Germany and lose against mediocre Scotland.
Scotland are playing well these days
Only lost 1 in ten, I think. They pressed and passed far better than we did.
yet again, pure muck from ireland
Ireland away is the usual long ball standard. Seamus Coleman has never been so quiet. Martins away tactics very similar to traps unfortunately.. Shite to watch. Always look forward to international football when Ireland are playing but it’s just like a fridged girlfriend. Loads of expectation followed by a lack of excitement and an end goal
*fridgid…. idiot
@Michael Duffy, you keep your girlfriend in the fridge? Also, @Cian O Donoghue, its actually spelled “frigid”…sorry!
Nice input you muppet
@cormac. If only I could:)
we are pure shite
Two bad teams but least Scotland try to play the ball around.. Mulgrew I thought was fantastic…
Thank God for the bottle of wine during that.That was like watching two teams from the bottom of the championship , and thank the other Gods for the other bottle in the fridge
Cant believe how anti-Irish the scots are …my God they really hate us …im disapointed cause ive always supported Scotland …alot of family living there ….im shocked to day the least .
Say
Alot of rangers fans probally showed up.The Billy boys song was heard sang tonite.Thats normally sang by the bigoted no ireland fans and newco (rangers) fans. Most other scots don’t get involved in that rubbish.
It’s time Irish people took off the Braveheart tinted glasses.
And it’s not just Sevco fans who are like that.
What do people expect? We just don’t have the players anymore.. Compare the squad of the 90′s to todays squad? No comparison
It’s not our national sport,we have our own games that most kids get involved from an early age. It’s 3rd or 4th choice,so we do well in fairness.
It was really sad to be honest..with the exception of one or two players…we were bad…Still it is not over yet!!
I don’t see Ireland finishing 3rd. We ‘re a poor 4th at best. Lucky in Georgia, lucky in Germany but not tonight. I thought O’Neills selection was odd and then substitutions just plain weird. Gibson and Mcclean were off the pace.
Taking off Long was crazy, replaced by Brady , while McClean stayed on. Surely that should have been a straight swap. Certainly Brady contributed more than McClean. Then bringing Robbie on as a last desperate measure.
It’s no big deal, Ireland will still finish third in the group and maybe squeeze through to the euros in a play off. Why would anybody expect any different. That’s the teams level and it has been for a long time… But not to worry the real Irish team is playing In the Aviva on Sunday and that team is going to beat Australia the following week.. Because that’s their level!!
In a sport that only about ten countries in the world take half way seriously.
Yeh looking at he FAI league of ireland, we are obviously not one of those ten.
About 10 countries? 80 per cent of world countries no 1 sport. Rugby about 3
Lads read ronans comment again, i think ye got the wrong end of the stick, he was going on about rugby
Trappatoni with an Irish accent and to think one of our better ex players assisted in that style of football…..disgraceful and backward…no chance of qualification with that style of football
MON is clueless. Ward upsets me terribly, not an ounce of talent
He didn’t do much wrong tonight. Coleman was skinned more times.
Ward made at least 3 to 4 serious errors when he passed the ball out of defence. He didn’t make any that were punished, because McLean spent most of his evening covering and babysitting him – to a point, McLean ended up having little or no time to get forward and create anything on the wing.
Singing flower if Scotland from out fans was embarrassing. Worse to see scots singing it. Vote NO
I see Roy was acting the hard man again. He’s his own biggest fan #ALBA
I don’t fear Scotland after this game we will do them at home and they will drop points away to Georgia.. My worry is Poland and Germany.. Bad loss but were still in a very good place after away games to Germany and the Scots..
I’d doubt after this game Scotland are fearing us either for the return match!
Ireland’s performances in competitions in recent times has always been substandard, we are unable to beat teams that matter in the qualifications. We have had some impressive draws, but there hasn’t been an impressive win by the Irish team in years, for example:
2014 WC Qualifiers: Draw + Loss to both Sweden & Austria, Lost twice to Germany.
2012 Euro Qualifiers: Won twice over Armenia, Drew twice with Slovakia, Drew + Loss to Russia.
2010 WC Qualifiers: Drew twice with Bulgaria & Italy
2008 Euro Qualifiers: Draw + Loss to both Sweden & Austria
2006 WC Qualifiers: Draw + Loss to France, Draw twice with both Switzerland and Israel.
Quite simply, if you cant beat the teams that matter the most you don’t stand a chance of qualifying.
I agree we have a shocking record of failing to beat anyone decent. However, strangely enough, it’s not true to say you have no chance of qualifying without beating the top teams. For example – in 2 of the last 3 campaigns, we qualified once and narrowly went out AET in a playoff once. That was without beating anyone decent in any of those campaigns.
We also qualified for the 1994 WC without beating anyone decent (drew twice with Denmark, lost one and drew one with Spain). And we got to the quarter finals of Italia 90 without winning a single game! You’ll never beat the Irish!
It’s Roy Keane’s fault, he’s demoralised the camp, he brings in a negative atmosphere
Gowl…..
very reminiscent of the tactics adopted by Jack Charlton except His teams had better players…..yer man ward is utter shite
Below par performance from Ireland. One of those games the selection was about right, but too many players underperformed, and our wide players spent too much time and effort covering for the full backs. If you examine the time Ireland moved and passed the ball foward in the air, compared to Scotland’s better control and composure, it reveals the real story tonight. Hendrick and Gibson have some creativeness about them, but tactics reduced their impact. On paper, the Ireland selection and substitutions seemed to tip towards winning this game, but in the end it proved more warrior cry than wizardry.
Substitutions were awful. Taking long off n bringing on a winger. Mindless
Sure by the end we had only 1 recognisable midfielder in the middle, and that was quinn, who’s actually nearly more of a no 10. Strange. Having said that, injuries ravaged us, we haven’t enough strength in depth to lose Mccarthy, hoolihan, whelan and Reid. Plus Gibson wasn’t 100 percent fit. And where are all the whelan haters?? He might tend to pass the ball back, but at least he passes the ball!!!
He moved Walters into an out-and-out forward role, but again, even when we were chasing the game, MON still persisted with booting the ball forward and hoping to get something from a knock-down. This was nothing to do with the players on the pitch, but the way we were playing didn’t change.
Told you before the match that Ireland were rubbish! Surprised we only won by one goal.
We’ll win again in Dublin, 2 – 0.
C’MON SCOTLAND!!!
Pure and utter muck as usual
hopefully Ireland wont qualify. its bad enough been shite with only a handful of people watching
Occasion my hole!! They’re simply not good enough
In fairness Martin o Neil said in an interview he was worried where irish football is heading and he’s right. I myself am an awful Glenn wheelan basher but fcuk we needed him tonight not one irish player was able to hold onto the ball without heading it or kicking it away even when a player was 5 or 10 yards away from them. Pitiful stuff to watch.
Was that volleyball or keep em ups, kicking for the corners and high balls, taught it was rugby replay.
Ireland are a bad team..simple as..Scotland aren’t any better..going nowhere fast..
Such a boring load of Sh!te, thank god for rugby
I think the biggest joke was Roy Keane in a staring match with the ref , would’nt he just act professional and act his age , by god he’s a real hard man
Aidan McGeady….always has and always will be utter sh!te!..
no heart or conviction. they should watch an Irish rugby game for the love of God.
Oh for the love of Jesus will ye rugby fans just f#%k off giving this heart and commitment shite like the players management etc. Don’t care. They gave it everything it wasn’t good enough simple as that.
Arthur it was a performance full of heart and commitment, that was the problem, you see in soccer you need guile, skill, subtlety etc. Running into lads and pushing them off the ball ain’t gonna cut it, stick to rugby if thats your thing
Without our best players we will always struggle. Ward is not good enough and Mcgeady doesn’t offer enough consistently but unless something drastic happens O’Neil will never drop him, Keogh was great so when Wilson comes back it would be a straight swap for me ward out Wilson in. Can’t understand him not taking off the 2 booked players especially in that type of game. Let’s hope the 2 new lads get a full 90 against the U.S, Mcgoldrick could be great for us he is in good form. Not over by a long shot 4 out of next 5 at home… COYBIG
Awful game. Completely overrun in midfield. Thought Hendrick was very poor. 90 mins of stupid fouls and hoofing. Is this meant to be an improvement on Trap?