Maybe in hindsight a little too much was made of the message that the game should pass without incident. The supporters kept their side of the bargain but what a strange and unsatisfactory occasion, when probably the only moment worth remembering was the ovation for Jack Charlton when the former Ireland manager came out before kick-off in a flat cap that just might have been in his possession since those heady times back in the day.
Charlton looked visibly moved by the reaction and would no doubt have appreciated the fact Ireland’s best moment came from a long goal-kick, a flicked-on header and a no-frills striker from the Championship getting a shot away. Yet it would be a struggle to remember too many other incidents and, in the worst moments, it was a reminder that these sides barely have a flicker of the old rivalry. The match was a page of blank notes. It was a stinker – and there is no point dressing it up as anything else. It was dull, prosaic, lacking any form of wit or creativity, and a crashing letdown after the sight of Barcelona and Juventus taking the sport to its highest limits in the Champions League final.
There was more to it than just the match, of course, and the Football Association will be relieved and delighted in equal measure that England’s supporters refrained from polluting the occasion with the anti-IRA chants heard at previous matches. The away fans even won a round of applause for one of their attempts to inject some humour into proceedings. “Sepp Blatter, he paid for your ground” was a popular chant on a day when parts of the crowd targeted John Delaney, the chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland.
It felt at times like the supporters were just keeping themselves entertained because the bottom line was there was precious little on the pitch to get worked up about. Wayne Rooney’s contribution said it all. The England captain is two goals away from equalling Sir Bobby Charlton’s scoring record but nobody could ever have guessed it. He had only eight touches of the ball in the first half. His one chance from open play was miscontrolled and he eventually went off in a spree of second-half substitutions that did absolutely nothing to enliven the occasion. Rooney did have a free-kick that went straight into Keiren Westwood’s hands but, that apart, England did not manage a single effort on target against a side featuring four players from the Championship and five from clubs that finished last season in the lower reaches of the Premier League.
Martin O’Neill was entitled to reflect that Ireland had the better chances, most notably through Daryl Murphy in the first half. Robbie Brady was the player who did the most to lift the tedium and their defence can feel satisfied with the way they nullified England’s threat. Roy Hodgson sounded frustrated afterwards and maybe surprised, too, about the lethargy on show. His team, he said, had high standards and had fallen way short.
“We came here thinking that if we played to our best we could have won, but we never got close to that. There were far too many occasions when we didn’t want as many duels as we would have liked, we didn’t win enough second balls and, most importantly of all, we didn’t make enough use of the ball and threaten their goal.”
Hodgson tried to shake it up by bringing on Jamie Vardy for his debut, as a substitute, choosing the Leicester City striker instead of Charlie Austin, but it made little difference and England continued to play without any real drive or imagination. Jack Wilshere was really the only England player who tried to inject some much-needed urgency into the game.
Adam Lallana, for instance, should be using these occasions to leave a lasting impression on his manager. Instead, he did not play with any impetus or apparent desire to raise the temperature and seldom troubled Seamus Coleman. Lallana also provided one of the game’s least distinguished moments, putting a corner straight out of play to concede a goal-kick.
Raheem Sterling did at least keep looking for the ball and trying to run at opponents but he had a difficult day. Sterling also found out the hard way that there are a lot of Liverpool supporters in Ireland and many of them resent the fact he is currently embroiled in a contract dispute with the Anfield club. Sterling was booed whenever he had the ball and Hodgson acknowledged afterwards that the winger was going through “a bad time” that was directly related to his issues with Liverpool.
The game was not entirely pointless bearing in mind Ireland have a Euro 2016 qualifier against Scotland on Saturday. John O’Shea was taken off during the second half after feeling a twinge in his calf but O’Neill seemed fairly confident his key defender would be available. England go to Slovenia next Sunday and, though their place in the competition is already virtually assured, Hodgson made it clear he would like to see a considerable improvement and would not tolerate a repeat performance. That, if nothing else, felt like something to cling on to but it was not much.
Man of the match Robbie Brady (Republic of Ireland)
