Richard Dunne - what a man !

Deiseblue

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One of the bravest performances I've had the pleasure to watch by an individual player.

His desire allied to defensive nous & stubbornness was hugely admirable.

But my God we were lucky to get a point.
 
Right up there with Roy Keanes performances against Spain in Seville and the Netherlands in Dublin. Even Paul McGrath would have been proud of that performance (McGrath just wouldn't have broken sweat putting in a performance like that though!). Amazing how a match like that can be so enjoyable to watch. We don't have a creative bone in our bodies though!
 
He was very good. And quite unlucky to get the yellow card I thought. He seemed to make contact with the ball first. That running track is much too close to the football pitch.
 
I think the yellow card is a blessing in disguise.

He will miss the Andorra match but will be available for the more important one against Armenia.

We were very lucky not to lose, depending on an heroic performance from Dunne coupled with some terrible finishing from the Russians.

I still think Trappatoni is far too conservative ( Worse than Brian Kerr ) and if the team were given more freedom to play an attacking game, we could be looking at topping the group.
 

McGrath is suitably impressed - http://www.joe.ie/football/international-football/dunne-was-better-than-me-mcgrath-0015612-1
 
Class. Also Given had a great game.

This must be the weirdest group ever. I was hoping Armenia would nick a point off Slovakia and they beat them 4-0! We play them in our last match and it is now likely they will have a chance of the play-offs.
Some twists and turns left.
 
If Ireland win their next two they get a playoff spot, is that right?

What needs to happen for them to win the group?
 
Yes Callybags, that the ideal situation.
From my reading of it, Slovakia have to beat Russia to have any chance of qualifying so will be up for it.
However, when Armenia come to Dublin for the last game it is likely they could qualify by beating us.
 
At least it's all in our own hands and it's realistic

If we win our last 2 games then we make the play-offs
 
At least it's all in our own hands and it's realistic

If we win our last 2 games then we make the play-offs

Yes. That sums it up perfectly. I'm looking forward to it all.
 
Dunne deserves to qualify Ireland dont.
Here come the purists!

You should stop listening to Dunphy and the lads. Do you think Ireland didn't deserve to go to Italia 90 either? The football we played back then wasn't much different. Not too long ago we were turned over 5-2 by the mighty Cyprus. We will never have a squad good enough to open up every game and knock the ball about like Brazil. If grinding out results gets us to major championships I'll take it every time.

Fantastic team effort last night from the lads, there'll be a few sore bodies this morning. Apart from Dunne and Given, Aiden McGeady, just back from 2 months out injured, did some fantastic tracking back, and Darren O'Dea who was solid as a rock.

Passion and Intensity seem to be terms reserved for the GAA these days, but you'll struggle to see more effort for the shirt than you did last night.

COME ON YOU BOYS IN GREEN!
 
You should stop listening to Dunphy and the lads.

Dunphy should be taken off the tv. He was funny in the 1990's. Same as Hook in the rugby.

We will never outplay the top teams and no-one can knock any of the players for effort but at the same time, we would have lost that game last night 9 times out of 10. The system and style makes us very difficult to beat and to be honest, I think that is the best we can hope for at the moment. We have one world class player in the shape of Given, a couple of top premiership players in Dunne and O'Shea and that is about it.

As you say though, they were a credit to the shirt last night.
 
We had a much better team in Italia '90. We put teams "under pressure". I don't remember the team from Italia '90 giving the opposition 26 shots at goal!

Delighted with the result, but lets not fool ourselves into thinking that this team is as good as the ones containing McGrath, Whelan, Houghton, Aldridge or Keane (Roy).
 
Dunphy should be taken off the tv. He was funny in the 1990's. Same as Hook in the rugby.

Totally agree about Dunphy & Hook. They have become caricatures of themselves at this stage, being different and whinging for the sake of it.


We will never outplay the top teams

We don't outplay anybody, even Andorra.
 
Richard Dunne and Shay Given deserve a real manager.
Why not Brian Cody?
If somebody who has won 10 league titles in four different countries and won 3 european trophies at two different clubs isn't a real manager I don't know what is.

He gets the best out of what we have, which is all that can be asked of him.

If Brian Cody isn't available, who, realistically, would you get to take over from Trapp?