Edgy atmosphere among Ireland players didn’t go unnoticed

Niall McIntyre

Unlike this team.

Up until the World Cup qualifier play-off second leg, whatever criticism you had of this Irish side, you could never question their team-ethic, their spirit and their togetherness.

The road to Tuesday’s team-defining game was at times rocky, with disappointing results coming against Wales, Serbia and Austria in those group games. However, rarely could you accuse this team of taking this frustration out on each other or displaying negative body language during games.

Martin O’Neill and his men are often criticised for their lack of ability when it comes to passing the ball, and for being somewhat difficult on the eye, but the aforementioned spirit was always a given. It is something that was always so evident in those crucial wins against Wales and against Serbia in the group stages.

It was so Irish. It all feeds into this team making the very most of what their talents and what they have – dying with their boots on and, at least if they went down, they went down together.

Against Denmark, there was a tetchy and, at times, edgy atmosphere between the Ireland players.

A misplaced pass was met with a shake of the head. James McClean and Ciaran Clarke were picked up by the RTÉ microphones having what seemed like a few choice words with each other after 20 minutes of the game.

This was at 1-1 when we still had every chance of regaining our momentum, and as you can imagine, when the score went to 2-1, 3-1 and 4-1, there was even more discontentment.

Robbie Brady was overheard effing and blinding in the second half. Players raised their hands and appeared to be attempting to pass the blame onto others.

Now don’t get us wrong, in a game, in probably the most important game of these players lives, there’s obviously going to be moments when they get irked, when they let the guard slip if things aren’t going right.

But it is the cardinal rule of football, and of any team game, that once you start moaning and bickering with your own teammates, it’s not going to help the team.

Maybe it was a case of some of the players playing the occasion and not the game, because it was something that we would never associate with these players, something that was so out of character.

Maybe it’s a sign of how much it all meant to these players. Maybe it’s a sign that they were frustrated at the tactics the team were employing. Who knows?

In the end, the better team won. It was the class of Christian Eriksen that won out, the type of class that we simply don’t have in our ranks.

It got a lot of people talking.