Madam, - In an interview on RTE's Morning Ireland the chairman of the FAI, David Blood, said in defence of the Irish display in Limassol that there were no easy matches in European football. I can't imagine his counterpart in the Cypriot FA agreeing with him. - Yours, etc,
RONAN MURTAGH, The Mall, Malahide, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Tom Humphries is arguably the best sportswriter in this country. Therefore, it was with great disappointment that I read Monday's Locker Room, which was nothing more than an opportunistic expression of Mr Humphries's inability to admit that he was wrong when he championed Brian Kerr as the saviour of Irish football in 2003.
Steve Staunton's unsuitability to the post of national manager should not be used as justification for the mediocre record of Brian Kerr over two international tournament qualifying campaigns. On both occasions he failed to guide the squad to even second place. A runners-up spot was the minimum that Jack Charlton and the unfairly maligned Mick McCarthy delivered over the course of eight consecutive campaigns.
Many will defend Kerr by claiming that our hopes of qualification for Euro 2004 were dead and buried when he took the reigns from McCarthy. That is nonsense. Kerr got Ireland back into contention by collecting 10 points from 12 against Georgia and Albania, hardly the type of results that great international managers build their reputations on. His team's failure to beat Russia at home in September 2003 and their spineless capitulation in Basel a month later cost Ireland a place in Portugal.
In attempting to reach this year's World Cup, we finished fourth behind even Israel. During Kerr's reign we never beat a country ranked inside FIFA's top 70 in a competitive international. We failed to do so on seven separate occasions.
Another untruth bandied about by Kerr's apologists is that he didn't have the players to succeed. However, the squad Kerr inherited was considerably better than the one his predecessor had when he stepped into the shoes of Jack Charlton. Where McCarthy had to completely rebuild an ageing squad, Kerr started off with Given, Carr, Finnan, Cunningham, O'Shea, Harte, Holland, Duff and Robbie Keane - all of whom (bar Cunningham) were yet to reach 30, while most had World Cup finals experience.
Kerr failed abjectly. The fact that Staunton is an even worse appointment should not be used by the otherwise excellent Humphries to validate a three-year-old opinion that has been emphatically disproved. - Yours, etc,
PAUL MEHIGAN, Castle Riada Drive, Lucan, Co Dublin.
Madam, - "A national disgrace" would summarise the media's judgment on the national soccer team's performance in Cyprus last Saturday. Yes, the side let themselves down, but I'd like the media to be equally passionate about another national disgrace - the carnage on our roads. - Yours, etc,
JOHN EDWARD McBRIDE, Carrick Road, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.