“My game changes a little bit when the fans are there” – Matt Doherty relishes the return of fans

"It's a proud night for the players."

Stephen Kenny has been looking forward to the Irish fans returning with great excitement. This Saturday, they will finally be back and no doubt full of support for the boys in green. It's impossible to underestimate what the crowd can add to a football match, and to player individually.

"It's a proud night for the players, we’ve seen a high number of players make their competitive international debut in empty stadia, with echoes where you can hear the voice of players. It’s not comparable, it just isn’t. "All of the players’ families, they have been part of their football journey, in their lives, which isn’t always an upward curve, there’s ups and downs.

"Then their son/brother/friend/grandson gets the chance to play for Ireland and they can’t go. So for them to get there is really special and to see their families witness the players playing, it’s very proud." Matt Doherty in particular, is excited to see what's the fans can help bring out of the players. "Just for me on a personal level, I really, really needed the crowd back," the Tottenham man said.

"My game changes a little bit when the fans are there. I feel like I’m able to go to a different level of performance and I’m sure that’s the same for almost everyone really. It will make a big difference. I know it’s not a full stadium but however many are there it will make a positive difference for us.

"To be honest, there has been a bit of growth because the way we were trying to play, on Wednesday it all came to the front," Doherty said. "Our confidence on the ball, our confidence in our ability, our confidence in our shape. Everything looked solid and we looked like a dangerous team. "We looked like we could cause problems every time we broke forwards, we were calm on the ball and even calm out of possession where we didn’t lose our heads. We didn’t lose shape much at all. "So that is progression over the games. We seem to be looking better, we seem to be more of a threat each time we go forward so even though we lost the game we take a lot of confidence from that performance."