Pretty happy with last nights result in the Faroe Islands. Ireland seemed slightly hungover in the first half from the game on Saturday and a lot of players had bellow par performances. Before the game the media had been reporting on fog which was hampering planes landing and it resulted in at least three plane loads of supporters not being able to make the game. 🙁 Bit of a nightmare when you’ve paid for your ticket and flight.
Ireland got off to a bright start but kept getting caught offside anytime they came forward. The Faroes had a few chances themselves during the first half and came close on a couple of occasions. Shay Given was very alert in goal though and would be my number one target for United as they’ve never truly replaced Schmeichel. Our best chance of the half came when Andy Reid hit a left foot shot from the edge of the box which their goalie couldn’t hold and Stephen Elliott followed up but hit the bar. In fairness to him it was his first competitive start and he got slightly ahead of himself when going to hit the shot.
The second half was much better from Ireland as they played like they should have in the first half. On 52 minutes Elliott was put through with a ball over the top and ran onto it as the goalkeeper hesistated and then brought him down. Ian Harte scored the resulting penalty and it was a relief if nothing else. A short time later, I can’t remember how long to be honest :), Kevin Kilbane shot from the edge of the area but his shot was deflected off Johansson (Faroes captain) and flew past the keeper on his right hand side. It wasn’t a vintage performance by Ireland’s standards but this was all about getting the 3 points and going home. The players have had a long season with their clubs and deserve the break. There’s talk about going to Cyprus in October for the away qualifier but I’ve to look up flight information to see how we’d get there. Hopefully we’ll still be on course for qualification at that stage. 🙂