Stephen Kenny returned to the scene of his team’s most agonising near-miss to record the biggest competitive win of his time in charge of Ireland.
A little over two years on from the 2-1 defeat against Portugal, an impressive contingent of travelling Irish supporters were at the Estadio Algarve to watch their team enjoy a confidence-building run-out against the group minnows. As Ireland get accustomed to fourth seed status, it’s reassuring to know that - for now - there still remains a big gap to fifth.
[ TV View: Ireland’s Magic Johnston hoping they can play Gibraltar every weekOpens in new window ]
The teamsheets had brought the surprising news that Nathan Collins had been left out with Liam Scales taking his place in central defence and Ryan Manning at left-back. Collins had been subbed off at half-time against Greece, which suggested Kenny was unhappy with a performance that arguably included mistakes on both the Greek goals. Kenny had described the first as “a free header, they shouldn’t get that”, and Collins had made a silly error on the second by stepping up to play a Greek attacker offside before he had crossed into Ireland’s half.
Still, Collins might argue in his defence that others (Matt Doherty, anyone?) had hardly played any better on the night. Kenny offered the justification that Scales, as a left-footer, could provide better passing angles against Gibraltar’s low block. In which case, why not play Collins on the right side of defence instead of Shane Duffy, who has never been celebrated for his passing range? The fact that Collins was left on the bench for the full 90 minutes suggests there was more to this than passing angles.
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Faced with a dense but static Gibraltar defence, Ireland eventually started making the kind of off-the-ball runs that open up the space for chances.
On eight minutes Matt Doherty played the ball up the line to Chiedozie Ogbene and seemed at first content to stand watching him.
But as two Gibraltar defenders declined to put in a challenge on Ogbene, Doherty eventually saw the opportunity for an overlap, and Ogbene picked out his run with a clever ball between his two markers. Evan Ferguson had peeled away from his man towards the near post and met Doherty’s low cross with a controlled volley into the net.
Ferguson was involved again in the build-up to Ireland’s second, taking down a long ball in the box, holding it up and playing it back to Cullen in midfield. Doherty made another run into the space and Cullen found Ogbene to play him through, this time it was Mikey Johnson arriving at the near post to bundle it in at the second attempt after his first effort hit the post.
The two goals in the second half were both created by Jamie McGrath - the first with an acrobatic flick-on at the near post which was headed into the net by Doherty, the second with a clipped cross onto the head of Callum Robinson, who was awarded his goal after a mystifyingly lengthy VAR check for offside.
McGrath had been excellent on his first start for Ireland in that Portugal match two years, but then faded out of the picture in 2022 and 2023 after a move to Wigan that didn’t work out. Considering the general picture of the last three years, Ireland’s record when McGrath is involved is surprisingly good - 10 games, 21 goals, six wins and only two defeats (against Portugal and the Netherlands last month).
[ No wobble from Ireland as Gibraltar are brushed aside in FaroOpens in new window ]
With recent results giving rise to a lot of nonsense talk about three wasted years and Ireland being in a worse position now than when Kenny started, it’s worth noting that this was at least much better than our 2019 performances against Gibraltar, when Mick McCarthy’s team squeaked past them with two 1-0 wins.
As Irish football wallowed in depression over the weekend there was talk that Kenny should be paid off now, in order that a new manager could be installed in time for the Netherlands game next month.
But even if the FAI had already identified a new manager who was ready to take over in the next couple of weeks, would they be attracted by the prospect of taking over for the pointless final chapter of a failed campaign?
Results in other groups seem to have eliminated the possibility in which Ireland would be incentivised to lose to Holland to increase their slim chances of making the playoffs - but the fact such a scenario was ever even possible means Uefa have some thinking to do about the integrity of their Nations League-linked playoff system.
Better not to rush any decisions and instead let Kenny finish his term with as much dignity as he can gather. Maybe, now that guaranteed failure has lifted the pressure, the team will finally deliver the performance he’s been promising us all these years.
