After 45 minutes, it seemed as if Martin O’Neill’s pre-match words would turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“We’re not the type of team that is going to wipe the floor with people, we have to fight for everything,” O’Neill had said the day before the game.
When Igor Bugaev equalised for Moldova just before half time, it seemed that Ireland had, once again, found a way to make things difficult for themselves.
Up until then, Ireland disproved one part of O’Neill’s sentence – they had wiped the floor with Moldova. They had done what many would expect Ireland to do against a team ranked 161st in the world, but they had done it with vigour and aggression, but they were missing one factor: goals. Or, more precisely, a goalscorer.
In the absence of one, they had to fight for everything as O’Neill had predicted, but if the first half ended anxiously, Ireland found their goalscorer in the second half. And went on to wipe the floor with Moldova again.
Shane Long scored his first goal of the season in the second minute and it was a goal created by Wes Hoolahan, but after that, Ireland missed the type of cool and cunning finishing that Robbie Keane provided in his prime. And when he was well past his prime.
Ireland had to embrace a post-Robbie Keane world at some stage, but they may not have imagined that it would happen once Long had left the field with a hamstring injury and James McClean demonstrated his ability to find space in the box.
McClean’s two goals in the second half came from a coolness in the box as well as another moment of dancing feet from Wes Hoolahan.
They allowed O’Neill to enjoy a day which had looked good from the moment Georgia picked up a point in Cardiff, and which ended with Ireland level on points at the top of the table.
When they went in level at half-time, it looked as if it could be another act of self-sabotage to go with many in the country’s history, but Ireland turned to two men during a period in the second half when they looked as if they could wobble.
If Ireland are trying to get by without the goals of Robbie Keane, they were reminded again in Chisinau that it is crazy to try and enter a post-Wes Hoolahan world at the same time.
There will be tougher tests for Ireland, tests when O’Neill might decide, as he did in the summer, that he can do without Wes. But whenever he feels that way, he should consider what his most skilful player can do and maybe think again.
There might not be a lot to learn from a game in Chisinau, but if Ireland can walk away with three points having absorbed the lesson that Hoolahan is essential, it will be one of the most significant nights of the campaign. “You need someone like Wes who can put his foot on the ball,” McClean said afterwards.
Moldova, sandwiched between Aruba and Papua New Guinea in the FIFA rankings, looked as if they would accept their fate for most of the first half. But Ireland couldn’t get a second goal, and then Moldova discovered that the central defensive partnership of Ciaran Clark and Shane Duffy was as solid and united as the union between Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Bugaev’s goal ensured that Moldova began the second half confidently, while Ireland, who had been defined by the touch of Wes Hoolahan, now seemed to be structured around Duffy and Clark and whatever added anxiety Darren Randolph could come up with behind them.
It took the calmness of McClean in the box to put things back on track. McClean has always been a willing runner when he is sent upfront, but more importantly, he showed on Sunday that he can provide the goals that Ireland need as they try to get by without the man who usually provided them on nights like this.
Ireland don’t need any further acts of self-sabotage. They have emerged from the first three games in a strong position and they can feel confident going to Vienna in November. But they need certain players if they are to continue their good form.
Wes Hoolahan is 34, but that’s irrelevant in this campaign. Ireland need him for the next 12 months and should accept how necessary and how important he is. There’s no point planning for the future without the player who, more than any other, will show the next generation what the future should look like.
