Dunne ensures objective is met

WORLD CUP QUALIFYING GROUP EIGHT Bulgaria 1 Rep of Ireland 1: SUCH IS the depth of their rivalry that even when the Bulgarian national team plays, the fans of CSKA and Levski Sofia need to be kept firmly apart and the word ahead of this game at Levski's sold-out stadium on Saturday was that they might be separated by a sea of green.

As it turned out, it didn’t quite come to that and the local factions seemed to find common cause from time to time in barracking the visiting fans. Over a long and nail-biting night for those watching from the sidelines, however, it was the Irish who had a near monopoly on unity of purpose as the 2,500 or so supporters who had travelled cheered on a team whose sheer will to get something out of the game seemed to comfortably merit the vitally important point they secured.

Not for the first time in such circumstances, the fact that Ireland scored first fuelled a debate afterwards as to whether a result almost everyone would have happily taken beforehand was, in reality, a disappointment. Maintaining the five-point margin over Stanimir Stoilov’s side in the Group Eight table had been the clear objective during the long build-up to the match, though, and with that achieved ahead of the campaign’s closing stages in the autumn, the players’ demeanour outside and on the late night flight home left little doubt about how they viewed the outcome.

This was not exactly, it should be noted, a flawless performance by the Irish. Even Richard Dunne, who was outstanding, almost handed the hosts an equaliser moments after scoring his seventh international goal in 52 appearances when he hopelessly miscalculated the pace of the ball and allowed club-mate Martin Petrov to steal in for a shot from a narrow angle that, fortunately, the midfielder badly fluffed.

Overall, though, the team displayed an immense amount of character both in defence where, if Dunne led by remarkable example despite having had a painkilling injection before kick-off, Sean St Ledger proved a more than capable follower on this, his competitive debut.

In attack, a subdued performance by another of Ireland’s walking wounded, captain Robbie Keane, was completely overshadowed by the hustle and bustle of Caleb Folan and his tireless harrying of Bulgarian defenders. Had Keane been sharper there might have been a bit more end product from the pair in this, their first start together. But Folan’s determination to scrap for every ball in the air and chase after everything on the ground marked him out as one of the key Irish contributors.

Damien Duff was another. The Newcastle winger has endured a miserable season but there a lightness about the way he skipped about Ireland’s right-hand touchline on Saturday evening.

On perhaps half a dozen occasions he took on and beat defenders in a way we have sorely missed him doing through most of the past couple of seasons and at least as many times again he earned breathers for those around him and disrupted the flow of the home side’s pursuit of another goal by winning free kicks from unpromising situations.

Inside him, Ireland’s limitations in central midfield were again apparent with Keith Andrews more effective than Glenn Whelan at halting Bulgaria’s progress through the middle but only slightly less guilty at times of defending too deep, particularly during the closing 10 minutes of the first half when the visitors were in danger of being overrun by a side that looked energised and confident after coming from behind.

Ireland’s lead had come from a goal that was almost a carbon copy of Dunne’s against the same opponents in Dublin with the big defender heading home a Stephen Hunt free from the left while unmarked in the centre.

Dimitar Berbatov was supposed to be marking the Manchester City player but had become somewhat waylaid by club-mate John O’Shea as the ball was floated in.

Within five minutes the home side were level after Kevin Kilbane’s mistake allowed Dimitar Telkiyski to collect Igor Tomasic’s long pass forward and the Hapoel Tel Aviv midfielder coolly slotted the ball low past the advancing Shay Given from just inside the edge of the area.

The spell that followed must have driven Giovanni Trapattoni almost to distraction with the Irish surrendering both territory and their early initiative.

But after the break they recovered their composure with Kilbane one of those who could be proud of his contribution during a spirited and, for the most part, composed defence of a point.

Dunne was generally terrific, getting his head, it seemed, to everything in the air, in addition to producing a couple of memorable tackles and marshalling those around him with considerable authority but St Ledger was, for the most part, hugely effective too and O’Shea excelled at right back.

The Bulgarians looked solid and retained possession well but there was rarely much by way of creativity to their attacking play with Stiliyan Petrov struggling to exert the sort of influence he had in Dublin and Martin Petrov being well contained by O’Shea. Centre back Ilian Stoyanov looked impressive going forward and produced his side’s best chance of the second half with a strike from 25 metres while Given’s only real save – from Martin Petrov – proved to be of little consequence as the flag was up.

That aside, there was little enough for the goalkeeper to do bar gather quickly at the feet of Berbatov after the striker had been sent clear of St Ledger only, crucially, for his first touch to let him down midway inside the box.

Late on, Leon Best did well to help carry the fight upfield and Aiden McGeady might have nicked a winner with a low drive that went narrowly wide. The draw, though, was an entirely fair reflection of the game just as the contrast in the way the opposing fans greeted the final whistle was a pretty sound indicator of its significance to the two teams.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Manchester City); O'Shea (Manchester United), Dunne (Manchester City), St Ledger (Preston), Kilbane (Hull); Duff (Newcastle), Whelan (Stoke), Andrews (Blackburn), S Hunt (Reading); Keane (Spurs), Folan (Hull City). Subs: McGeady (Celtic) for Hunt (70 mins), Best (Coventry) for Keane (73 mins), Kelly (Birmingham) for O'Shea (82 mins).

BULGARIA: Ivankov (Bursaspor); Milanov (Levski Sofia), Stoyanov (Sanfreche), Tomasic (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Kishishev (Litex Lovech); Telkiyski (Hapoel Tel Aviv), S Petrov (Aston Villa), Angelov (Energie Cottbus), M Petrov (Manchester City); Berbatov (Manchester United); Bojinov (Manchester City). Subs: Makriev (Ashdod) for Bozhinov (59 mins), Georgiev (Terek) for M Petrov (61 mins), Dimitrov (Metalurg) for Telkiyski (82 mins).

Referee: Claus Bo Larsen(Denmark).