Ireland gain no ground as finishing line closes in

Republic of Ireland 1 Scotland 1

Martin O’Neill’s side failed to secure the win they required to significantly improve their qualifying prospects with Shaun Maloney’s heavily deflected strike a minute into the second half enough to earn the Scots a point in Dublin and keep them on course for a top three finish at the expense of the Irish.

Daryl Murphy and Jeff Hendrick were among the starters in a home team that had comfortably the better of the game until they scored but after Jon Walters had given them the lead somewhat controversially 39 minutes in, they struggled to keep the Scots entirely at bay.

It was frantic stuff for the most part and while Ireland had chances to get themselves back in front, Gordon Strachan’s side would have been somewhat hard done by had they lost. At the heart of their defence Russell Martin and Charlie Mulgrew worked heroically to contain the Irish attack and for the most part they pulled it off with the home side’s clear advantage in terms of possession not translating into shots on target.

Wes Hoolahan had his moments, though, and Murphy forced one good save from David Marshall. Towards the end, O’Neill turned to James McClean, Robbie Keane and Shane Long as he stepped up the search for a winner and while McClean posed the Scottish back four a couple of problems, he made nothing like the impact he had against Poland.

When the game started Ireland sprang, the way they tend to, from the traps but this time managed to maintain some of the momentum beyond the opening minutes. The energy they expended to keep the upper hand was extraordinary at times but the pressure exerted paid dividends with the Scots simply unable to settle on the ball, particularly in midfield, where they had clearly had the better of things seven months ago in Glasgow.

Séamus Coleman displayed plenty of exertion down the right, but the Everton full back was let down time and again by some rank-awful crossing.

With Hoolahan and Walters required to drop deep whenever the Scots had possession, a lot was being asked of Murphy in terms of winning or holding up possession. For the most part, though, he struggled with the long clearances directed at him and they rarely led to anything.

Under kick-outs and frees he fared better, though, and a couple of flick-ons for Walters led to half chances that left the Scots looking rattled around their own goal. His own best chance of the first half came 38 minutes in when Glenn Whelan picked him out with a promising cross and his looping header forced Marshall to nudge the ball over the bar for a corner.

From it, Ireland took the lead with Robbie Brady’s kick headed goalwards by Murphy only for the goalkeeper to block with his feet and Walters to tap home. The striker spun away in celebration and surprisingly little was made by the visiting defenders of the fact that he had been offside. Perhaps they were under instruction to see any such error as a potential windfall for their association.

Ireland’s next corner from that right side was so poorly defended that it really should have yielded another goal with the ball allowed to bounce in front of Marc Wilson and Murphy when neither seemed to expect to get that far but the opportunity passed and when, a few minutes later, Marc Wilson felt the need to hoof an aimless ball out of defence to relieve the pressure, there was the start of a sense that the balance might be shifting.

The aim for Ireland must have been to get settled in the second half and retake the initiative but almost before they knew it had started, the Scots were level with Alan Hutton running unchecked from the right back position barely a minute in and substitute Ikechi Anya laying his pass off to Maloney whose initially wayward shot was deflected past a static Shay Given by a helpless John O’Shea.

Ireland regrouped and though they never dominated again in the way they had during their best spells of the opening half, they created a handful of chances to retake the lead. The best of them fell to Murphy who was sent fractionally clear with a fine through ball by Hoolahan but his shot under pressure was saved well by Marshall with his feet and Walters’s follow up from a tight angle was cleared a couple of yards short of the target.

Scotland, by now, were occasionally stringing a few decent passes together and Anya forced Given into a terrifically improvised intervention with a deflected cross that the goalkeeper pounded into the ground at full stretch so that it would bounce over Steven Naismith.

The Irish, though, continued to hit their opponents on the break and threaten from set pieces although, in truth, with this defence working tirelessly to get on the end of every ball into the box and close down opponents when in possession, Marshall did not have to do too much, too often, to keep them at bay.

Late on, Ireland’s sense of urgency was plain for all to see but so too was their simple inability to do anything that might unlock the Scottish defence. When the fourth official announced three minutes of added time, there was no great sense from the supporters that they thought it would be enough.

At the final whistle, there was a predictable sense of deflation. While the Scots celebrated, the home fans made their way quietly towards the exits. Barring some very big results or some unlikely favours, the team now looks to be heading the same way.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: S Given; S Coleman, R Brady, M Wilson, J O'Shea; J Hendrick, G Whelan (J McClean, 67 mins), J McCarthy, W Hoolahan (R Keane, 73 mins); J Walters, D Murphy (S Long, 80 mins).

SCOTLAND: D Marshall; A Hutton, C Forsyth, R Martin, C Mulgrew; M Ritchie (I Anya, 45 mins), S Brown (J McArthur , 85 mins) , J Morrison, S Naismith (C Berra 90+2 mins); S Maloney, S Fletcher.