Post-match reaction: EMMET MALONEhears goal-scoring hero and captain Robbie Keane hail the defensive effort

ROBBIE KEANE will be amongst the long list of absentees from the Republic of Ireland’s game against Italy in Liege tomorrow night but, unlike Giovanni Trapattoni’s legion of “stayaways”, the Ireland captain headed off early on his holidays with the manager’s blessing.

Of rather more concern to the Italian than how the Italy game turns out is whether the striker, having just enjoyed his most prolific spell in a green jersey, can pick up where he left off in Skopje come the autumn.

Having drifted to the margins at Tottenham this season, then failed to shine when thrust back centre stage at West Ham, Keane linked up with the Republic of Ireland squad a couple of weeks ago feeling, perhaps, he had a point to prove.

Getting five goals in three games, his best ever haul and the first time he has scored in three consecutive outings in almost a decade, is probably beyond what even he had hoped for and after bringing his tally to 51 goals in 108 games, he is, he admits, in search of a new target.

Firing Ireland all the way to next summer’s European finals in Poland and the Ukraine is surely as good as any to be getting on with. “Yeah, I’m obviously delighted to be associated with some of the names that have done it over the years (the now 33-name long list who scored 50 international goals includes greats like Pele, Ferenc Puskas and Gerd Müller). I’m very proud to be amongst that elite but for me it’s all about the team and how the team perform. It’s all about getting three points and we did that tonight,” said the Republic of Ireland captain.

His goals, of course, were central to Ireland securing a win that keeps them firmly in contention for automatic qualification from what is proving to be a very tight group but Keane hailed the defensive side of a performance that yielded a third consecutive clean sheet and the second on the road of this campaign. “I think it’s important when you’re playing against a team that likes to pass it was around, it was important that myself, and (Stephen) Hunty and Shane (Long) when he came on, got into that little hole and stopped them from playing. And we did it very, very well.

“We got lucky with the penalty miss,” he acknowledged, “but apart from that defensively, I thought we defended very, very well as a group. From the top to Shay (Given) I think it will probably go down as a great team performance.”

Like Given and Hunt and one or two others, Keane required a pain killing injection before the game and as it effects wore off it was clear he was struggling towards the end. The prospect of securing an important win, though, seemed to keep everyone going through the closing stages and Keane insisted there had never been a point when he had wanted to call it a night.

“Yeah, I was knackered at the end. I got an injection before the game and it’s a bit sore now but, who cares . . . when you’re winning you’re desperate to do it for the team.”

Even then he came close to getting what would have been only his second international hat-trick only to see Nikolce Noveski block down his close-range shot. Understandably, however, he was rather happy with his haul.

The first came early on, the result of a deflected shot from distance, while the second, an opportunistic effort after a terrible mistake by Boban Grncarov put the Irish firmly on course for the win.

“We spoke about it beforehand, that the balls move all over the place. So, I said to the lads, if you get an opportunity to have a shot, shoot, so I did that and luckily enough for me it went in,” he said of the first.

As for the second, “I anticipated the defender making the mistake and he did. Then, I was going to hit it first time because the goalkeeper was way over to the left side but I said I’d take a touch here because, as I said, the balls were going all over the place.

“It was always important to get a second goal just to calm the nerves a little bit. We did that. And then obviously we were lucky with the penalty they missed. I think psychologically, that probably killed them off. They looked dead and buried after it.”

In fact the lead took a bit of hanging on to but the Irish, having looking shaky at the back through the first half, showed a good deal more composure during the second, limiting their hosts to just one long-range shot on target.

For the skipper, the main motivation was to hang on for the points but there was a sense too the players who had delayed their holidays wanted to make sure the sacrifice was worth it and Keane believes they should be rewarded when the manager comes to consider his options next time around.

“I think it’s important for the lads who are here to show that they should be here and that they have a right to be here. The next squad, they should be in. They could easily have been on holidays the last couple of weeks but they chose to be here so, it’s a decision the manager has to make now. But full credit: the most important thing was we stuck together, the last few weeks. The team spirit, I have to say, was strong.”

He says he would be heading to Belgium too but for the fact his groin is “hanging off”. The important work is done, though, and few could begrudge him his break.