Scotland’s Shaun Maloney curled the ball into the bottom corner of the net and the Republic of Ireland had barely looked like a football team. It was the early stages of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign and a loss to our neighbours, albeit away, was a tough pill to swallow.
On that night it seemed like the dream of reaching Euro 2016 was just that. And with it Martin O’Neill’s time as manager of the national football team may be short-lived.
The football was tough to watch, the results weren’t good and the players didn’t seem to be trying a leg for the gaffer.
Fast forward two years and four months and heading into a World Cup 2018 qualifier against Wales and you couldn’t imagine anyone but O’Neill in charge.
Since that defeat to Scotland at Celtic Park in 2014, the boys in green have lost just four games — two of those came at Euro 2016, one in qualifying for the Euro 2016 tournament and one in a warm-up friendly ahead of the trip to France.
During that time, O’Neill’s men have shocked world powerhouses in Germany and Italy in matches and generally looked tough to beat no matter the opponent. It is an incredible change for a team that looked so down and out just a campaign ago.
The loss of Robbie Keane to international retirement could have caused all sorts of problems, but the squad in its entirety have really began to step up. Burnley’s Robbie Brady has been instrumental, James McClean has been at his never-say-die best and Wes Hoolahan is his creative genius — all vital to the squad as it enters the business end of the World Cup qualifying campaign.
Unfortunately for us, however, two of those are missing for tonight’s match against Wales at the Aviva. But it’s a sign of the times for Irish international football that we still go in confident of getting a result against a team with one of the world’s best players in Gareth Bale.
As well as Brady and Hoolahan, first choice centre back pairing Shane Duffy and Ciaran Clark are also missing on the back of hectic Championship promotion schedules.
In the past, this would have been a major blow for Ireland. But the squad fights so hard for each other that you wouldn’t be slightly surprised if they came out with all three points from what will be a difficult match, as the dogged Richard Keogh and experienced John O’Shea come into the fray in replacement.
And it’s a sign of how far O’Neill has come as the Ireland boss. He’s turned that crushing Scotland result around and made us extremely hard to beat, no matter the quality and ranking of the opponent.
His tactical changes have helped, moving Robbie Brady higher up the field to exhaust his attacking influences a particular standout.
The Burnley winger has been sensational in green over the past couple of years and his header against Italy to send us through in the Euros and the resulting celebration showed what it means for him to pull on the jersey.
He’s turned West Brom’s James McClean from a one-trick pony into a winger who can really change games, with a steely determination to fight for his country that you rarely see in international football anymore. Wes Hoolihan would look out of place in few teams in the world with how he has been pulling strings for Ireland.
The very fact we were narrowly beaten by France and were left absolutely devastated shows how far O’Neill has brought the team. After drawing an extremely difficult group with Italy, Belgium and Sweden, few gave us a chance of even qualifying, but in the team was sensational throughout and deserved knockout stage recognition.
Going up against teams that had individual superstars in the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Kevin De Bruyne and Gianluigi Buffon, whereas Ireland have no such star power, exemplifies the team O’Neill has developed. No superstars, just a group of hard-working players that will never give up on each other.
Not too long ago, Irish matches were watched through fingers and gritted teeth at the horrible football and the fear of what the opposition would do to us. Now, the football is better and the national buzz surrounding the team is back, illustrated in the anticipation ahead of tonight’s local derby with Wales.
Where France 2016 once seemed like a distant dream, Russia 2018 now feels like a realistic possibility — and Martin O’Neill deserves all the credit for turning Ireland around.
