John Fallon: Playoff win can't disguise Ireland's threadbare midfield options

All the victories against Azerbaijan, Oman and Luxembourg, sandwiched by a credible home draw with Portugal, did was earn a contract extension for another doomed Kenny tilt.

Four wins from the last six outings, including the first consecutive competitive wins for six years, has infused a splash of optimism into the spring air.

Bulgaria may have plunged in the world rankings but incrementally so had Ireland from struggling to torpedo those and their likes. The fact Ireland put the Bulgars away twice in the last week with plenty to spare enhances the outlook.

Further reason for confidence to percolate, perhaps prematurely, are the troubles of rivals in the World Cup pool.

Second seeds Hungary will be joining Ireland in the second tier of the next Nations League after being emphatically relegated by Turkey in their playoff. Bad enough was losing 3-1 away, yet their 13-match unbeaten home record, lasting two and half years, was shredded with a 3-0 loss.

Captain Dominik Szoboszlai wasn’t tolerating the fickleness of fans used to feasting on their strides of recent years.

“Those who don't cheer for us when we are about to lose shouldn't cheer for us when we win either,” thundered the Liverpool playmaker.

Armenia are also hurting from playoff pain. Their 9-1 aggregate humbling by Georgia came in the first matches under former Dutch international John van't Schip, convincing the Yerevan crowd to call for the head of federation chief Armen Melikbekyan instead.

Top dogs Portugal did taste victory but the sourness from their first leg loss in Denmark endures. Neither captain Cristiano Ronaldo or manager Roberto Martinez were lavished for overturning the tie in extra-time against a side the locals deemed beatable in both legs.

Moods can fluctuate over the next six months, especially with a double-header for each team in June, but the eyeline towards Ireland’s opener against Hungary in Dublin on September 6 is gazing from glasses of a bright hue.

There’s plenty of reasons for this to be justifiable. Heimir Hallgrímsson chiselled his reputation from optimising the tools at his disposal and despite a first window in September when he was a virtual bystander the knowledge base by this juncture is clear.

Someone unafraid to make a drastic call is commendable and so too is a person willing to change his mind.

Hallgrímsson inhabits both categories, Matt Doherty being a case in point, drifting from exiled status to hero.

Elsewhere around the team have been revivals. Robbie Keane had a point in highlighting the lack of exposure for Troy Parrott at international level in recent years.

While the presumption existed that Evan Ferguson would spearhead this era, coming into his 21st year, Parrott has been preferred in Plovdiv. When Ferguson was promoted from sub on Tuesday, it was as the deeper supporting act, rather than the No 9 he’s accustomed to at club level. Parrott stretched the Bulgarian defence with his darts into channels, personified with his assist for the Finn Azaz equaliser, whereas the wisdom of Ferguson’s positioning manifested with his leveller at home.

Retreating to the halfway line to receive a pass, he drove at the defence, engineered a one-two with Azaz, to uncover the angle and smashed the ball high into the net.

Azaz displayed his versatility by oscillating between the centre and left roles over the two matches, while Mikey Johnston presents a threat on either flank. Ipswich Town duo Sammie Szmodics and Chiedozie Ogbene will deepen the options in that final third upon their return from injury.

It’s well established how well stocked Ireland are for goalkeepers and defenders but a couple of victories cannot disguise the shallow cast of midfielders.

Twin terrors Josh Cullen and Jason Knight acted manfully as the pivots in both games, Cullen’s incisive pass for Doherty’s winner evidence of the variety he brings, yet there’s no doubting the likes of Szoboszlai and Bernardo Silva will exploit their shortcomings.

There sits the one area of the pitch lacking in top-flight operators. Will Smallbone’s return from injury will supply a player who showed glimpses of his ability to cut at that level this season. He’s already got a fan in Hallgrímsson’s assistant John O’Shea from their time together at Stoke and the Ireland caretaker stint.

Aside from replicating the Nathan Collins experiment from the England game, personnel alternatives are threadbare.

Alan Browne, while excluded for the last window, is central to a Sunderland team fourth in the Championship but otherwise the management have been dipping into League One to scout Joe Hodge on loan from Wolves at Huddersfield Town and Killian Phillips in Scotland.

Bosun Lawal’s stress fracture injury has punctuated his progress since Stoke City paid €3m to Celtic in the summer, to the point Mark Robins has downplayed his prospects.

For the June friendlies against Senegal and Luxembourg, based on his current trajectory in France with Reims, John Patrick Finn will likely bank a debut call-up.

Still unproven at elite level, he’s much to do compared to Nico O’Reilly. The Manchester City prodigy is eligible but it would be wishful to think he’ll spurn his route into the England squad.

Ireland will have to confine their dreams to reaching next year’s World Cup.

Another uprising against summer football

Not a week goes by without some form of rebellion against the summer football proposal and the next milestone is a meeting in Limerick on Monday week, April 7.

The schoolboys/girls affiliate, SFAI, as well as Leinster and Ulster provincial bodies have pleaded with the FAI to reevaluate their decree on leagues to work around a calendar season in line with the LOI February to October cycle.

On December 5, the FAI General Assembly ratified by a 57% majority a motion by the board to align football from U8s up to senior level.

“We believe that this vote was flawed and denies our league/clubs their democratic right to choose what calendar to run our season,” says the Limerick District Schoolchildren League, who’ve called the summit for the Castletroy Hotel.

“Our right of choice to play school/winter calendar should not be taken away from us.

“The vote was won with the professional Clubs/ LOI votes which we believe should have no input or consideration into grassroot footballs as when LOI moved to the calendar season that was their choice, and grassroots had no input.” 

They’re calling on all clubs and leagues in Munster to assemble, with a view to arranging a meeting with the minister for sport and TDs “to discuss the way forward”.

Women's football needs quality, not quantity

Various topics were covered in Marc Canham’s media briefing this week but the concept of developing a second tier of the women’s national league hardly got a mention.

This idea was first floated back in the FAI’s 2022 strategy and arose periodically since.

Hannah Dingley’s action plan for the women’s and girls’ game unfurled last week was so lacking in detail that it barely registered.

There was curiosity when the women’s national league (WNL) title changed last year to women’s Premier Division (WPD) but it appears a Championship addition is years away.

That’s based on a meeting held last week with the existing clubs to gauge interest in the second tier.

Although soundings from the FAI indicate positivity, club sources reveal the weight of response emphasised building the current top-flight.

Waterford became the latest men’s club to double up with a women’s team but others such as St Patrick’s Athletic, Derry City and Dundalk don’t have a senior entrant.

With crowds of merely double-figures a regularity at WNL matches, the logic of improving what requires immediate attention smacks of commonsense. Quality over quantity.