Lack of friendly fire as Ireland fail to light up Oman

If life is what happens when you're busy making other plans, friendlies like this are what happens while everyone else is exploring life. A sleepy night of sloppy football, a couple of harmless goals from corners and barely a drop of sweat spilled. The second win of Martin O'Neill's time in charge, a first since the opening night victory over Latvia all of 10 months ago. Above all, a reminder that it's high time Ireland started playing games that matter again.

That will come on Sunday in Tbilisi, not a moment too soon. O’Neill put out a skeleton team here, one matched by the skeleton crowd of just under 15,000 that turned up in the stands. If you were looking on the bright side, you’d say that at least the paltry attendance meant there was one less thing for the booming tannoy announcer to blare into the Dublin 4 night. We could have passed around a foolscap and got everyone to write their name into it and it would hardly have passed the first half.

Campaign to come

This was Ireland’s eighth friendly game in a row. The last time we endured such an eon of non-competitive football, it actually gave way to a decent enough period – Ireland went on seven World Cup qualifiers unbeaten under

Brian Kerr

. Repeat that run starting in

Georgia

and the lowered bar of qualification for Euro 2016 should be relatively easy to clear. But nothing we saw here tells us a whole pile about the campaign to come.

David Meyler got man of the match for what will, in all probability, turn out to be his one and only game at right back. Kevin Doyle scored the first goal in what is likely to be his last start in a green jersey for a while. Richard Keogh captained the side playing only his fifth cap and drove his players forward at every opportunity – but he too will surely make way once the serious stuff starts on the weekend. This wasn't preparation, it was fixture filling.

Oman came to Dublin with no great thrust about them, Ireland welcomed them with accommodating equivalence. A goal arrived in either half leaked in through poorly defended corners – the first a Kevin Doyle header, the second a scuffed effort from Alex Pearce after a scuffed corner from Robbie Brady. Meyler hit the post with a gorgeous chip, Aiden McGeady came off the bench to repeat the trick late on. Mostly, it was a nation turning its lonely eyes to the campaign proper.

“It’s been a long, long time coming,” said Martin O’Neill afterwards. “A really long period. It’s been 10 months and you’d think this day would never come. It starts on Sunday and it will be a long road and we’re going to try and be prepared for it. Someone asked me would I have liked to have played my first 11 here but that would have been an impossibility.

“I’m pleased. There are lots of things that we can still work on obviously. You could turn around and say that there is lots to improve on. But we won the game and I think we were comfortable enough. We had plenty of possession, played some nice stuff. We weren’t always able to convert it but I was happy enough that we were comfortable. Beforehand I thought we would need the game and so it proved. It’s nice to win.”

Life in proceedings

There’s no question that the team he picks for Sunday will contain more of the side that finished the game than the one that started it. By the end, McGeady,

Robbie Keane

,

Shane Long

and

Glenn Whelan

were on the pitch, pouring a little life into proceedings and, in turn, the crowd. Keane looked sharp, stinging Omani keeper Ali Al Habsi’s palms with a smart shot on the turn and almost wriggling through for a chance near the end. As ever, Ireland’s progress will hinge on his form in front of goal.

“The substitutions came on and gave us a wee bit more life, more energy and a bit more impact. Maybe we scored the second goal because of that. It was important for us to win the game because it gives us a bit of confidence. But despite the fact that we can improve, I would be happy enough that we were always comfortable – just without that bit of incision. But then, you could say that that’s the history of the Republic really.

“We would have liked to be further ahead at half-time. We played some nice football – we had possession but we weren’t really effective with it. We had five, six, seven passes and then we went backwards.

"I was pleased to actually see players like Darren Gibson play – this was his first game of any sort in a long time and he got tired near the end. I was pleased to see Robbie Brady as well – he was in my first squad away back in November but this is the first time he got to play for me. So it was good to get that and to see these players' injuries clear up. The players were saying there in the dressing room that there was more improvement to come. We think that of course but time is pressing and we have a big game on Sunday."