Well, there wasn’t much football to talk about.
Another night, another goalless Ireland performance lacking intent and even dreams of trying anything.
Of the seven games the Republic have played in 2018, they’ve won just one – a 2-1 win at home to America back in June. They’ve drawn three of those and lost three too. They’ve scored five goals in seven games – three times failing to register.
It’s bleak, everyone knows that and, as the game played out with a Brexit backdrop – with Arlene Foster actually railing against an amazing deal for Northern Ireland – there was a political tension in the air.
Terrible game, but Northern Ireland showed the difference a coach makes to a team.
ROI were a mess again. It's almost as if they only found out the starting line-up an hour before the match.#IRLNIR https://t.co/5OBnP9APb9
— Robert Redmond (@RobRedmond10) November 15, 2018
Boos for God Save the Queen, boos for Amhrán na bhFiann, boos for poor James McClean – people didn’t descend on Lansdowne Road to watch football and, when it was the north against Martin O’Neill’s Republic, why would you?
‘Northern Ireland failed to take their chances and had to settle for a draw in their friendly match against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin.’
There it is. The most depressing sentence ever.
But it wasn’t much better off the pitch.
Jamie Bryson, notorious idiot, thought he saw a woman in the upper tier unfurl a flag with a balaclava on it. He didn’t.
He would’ve, however, heard chants of “James McClean hates the f**king queen” and the freestyling lyrics between bars of Fields of Athenry.
But, still, he wasn’t taking as much offence to the Parachute Regiment flag – the symbol of the regiment who shot and killed unarmed civilians in Derry – making its way to the Aviva and being flown at a bus carrying Republic fans.
https://twitter.com/Tam_Selleck/status/1063116490096947200
But the Irish fans got their own back.
As supporters of Michael O’Neill’s army stood at the side of the bus chatting with an Irish supporter, one other boy in green snook up behind it and attached a tricolour that would fly the whole way into Dublin with a bus full of Northern Ireland fans.
https://twitter.com/Tam_Selleck/status/1063116648209661952
We’ll take a victory where we can.
