Hats off to manager who worked to strengths

BROKEN HEARTS aside, it was a fair result even if, under the circumstances, it felt like we were robbed. But we weren’t, at the very least Italy deserved a point from the game. And every good team scores late goals, always have done and always will.

What you don’t do, of course, is help them out. Quite why John O’Shea was so out of position when he gave the ball away I will never know. If it was one of the less experienced players you could understand it, but not someone who is battle-hardened and who has played in a Champions League final, won league titles and all sorts. The brain just seemed to freeze.

But, what’s done is done, we’re in the play-offs and that, for me, is an excellent achievement. I know Giovanni Trapattoni still has his critics but he has done the best possible job with what he has got, and I remain hard-pressed to think of anyone who could have done better.

Yes, absolutely, I would love to see Andy Reid back in the squad, but, much as I admire his abilities, I think he would have been completely bypassed by Italy in that game. He might give you more quality on the ball at times, but he would have struggled to get hold of it on Saturday.

Yes, we are weak in the centre of midfield, but in the absence of the injured Steven Reid who else is there? Andy Reid can’t play in there, his position is wide midfield.

Lee Carsley? He will be 36 by the time the World Cup comes around. He has started two league games, out of eight, for Birmingham this season and came off in both. He has been a good player for us, but he’s had his day.

Listen, we just haven’t got the players and anyone who argues that we have a squad brimming with world-class talent is just talking nonsense. It is not true. We have a single player who gets regular football with a traditional top-four English Premier League club – O’Shea. Who would any top-20 team in the world take from us? Apart from Shay Given, who else? Robbie Keane, possibly, when he’s in his best form, but beyond that? No one.

Of course Keith Andrews and Glenn Whelan wouldn’t get in to many international teams, but there isn’t anyone else coming through, no one who can actually open teams up. So, the notion that Trapattoni hasn’t got the best out of his squad, or is stifling supposedly brilliantly creative players is just rubbish.

This fella is a proper manager. He reminds me in many ways of Bob Paisley, a wise old guy who just understands football and footballers. He came in and spotted what needed doing, and then did it. He’s looked at what is available to him and has decided this is how we’re going to play – and, when you look at the table, how on earth could you argue with him? We were in there with the world champions, what do people want, for goodness sake?

Our greatest strengths are our raw energy, our desire and endeavour – and he has harnessed all of that. We should be shouting from the rooftops.

It was a fantastic start, and a magnificent goal from Whelan, but it is absolutely impossible at this level to keep that up – and the Italians knew that. They knew they would ride the storm and get back in to it; that’s what good teams do. They understood that we’d really go at them and try to outmuscle them, but we couldn’t possibly keep that up for 90 minutes. They just played themselves back in to the game, no panic.

They were fluid, they were fluent, their passing was good, their movement was excellent, when they were playing well it looked easy. But do you think they had a more difficult game in this campaign? What we did really well are the things we can do really well: we made them hurry at times, we were quick in to the tackle, and when we had the opportunities we made the most of them.

Aiden McGeady was a box of tricks without any end product, but I thought Liam Lawrence did really well. I think he got it, I think he grasped what international football is all about. He worked extremely hard, got back to help O’Shea, going forward he was decent, he posed a threat. He had to deal with Grosso as well who is a very good attacking full-back.

If you look at this campaign there have been quite a few players who’ve played above themselves, among them Sean St Ledger, a Championship player, and from a manager you just cannot ask for any more than that.

Whatever about who we might want to avoid in the play-offs, does anyone honestly believe Russia or France or, if they get there, Portugal and Greece would want to draw us? I don’t think so. We might not have their quality and technical ability but, as Italy discovered, we’re sure as hell hard to beat. And Trapattoni deserves plaudits for that.