Rule number one of being Irish: Don’t get ahead of yourself.
Don’t get ideas above your station. Never brag. Never think you’re good at anything and, even when you do think that, don’t ever, ever dare to say it aloud.
You’re Irish. Who the hell do you think you are?
But, suddenly, Scotland bottled it. Classically. And we have an ‘in’ via our favourite ‘they’re more sh*t than us’ philosophy.
Great.
In a way, it’s almost like, ‘So what?’
We’re a point ahead of Scotland, there are three games left in the group. They have their banker three against Gibraltar to come. So we need to win.
And we’re not great at winning.
We need to beat Georgia on Monday night and we could be heading into October – the final two group games – four points clear of the Scottish.
But how the hell do we beat Georgia? Genuinely.
Where do the goals come from? Where – how – do Ireland break down decent enough sides to create imbalances and goal opportunities? Where does the magic come from against teams who aren’t camped in their own box, teams who aren’t unorganised and unprofessional, teams who aren’t diabolical?
Even when we do get that spark, how do we get enough of it to win a match?
Georgia dominated their game with Scotland on Friday evening because they’re a good team. We know that. We already know that it took divine intervention from Aiden McGeady in injury time to get us out of Tibilisi with three points at the start of the campaign. The sort we haven’t seen since.
The sort we nearly haven’t been allowed to.
Okay, man-for-man, we should probably be beating Georgia. Probably.
But when was the last time you can remember an Irish team going out with a licence to go and beat a team? When we eye victories, we look to nick them.
For God’s sake, when we desperately needed a goal against Scotland in June, we brought Wes Hoolahan out of the action.
Think about the goals we have seen recently. Jon Walters hacking in a rebound against Scotland from a corner. John O’Shea latching onto a long last-gasp ball against Germany. Shane Long scuffing in a break-down from a corner. Then, we’ve either been playing amateurs or not scoring at all.
McGeady’s worldie? Well, that wasn’t exactly something that we can say we worked on. It wasn’t exactly part of an attacking template. It never is.
When it’s needed – like it is on Monday night – are we going to have a strategy to win? An attacking strategy? Are our players going to be allowed to go and win us the game?
Because, make no mistake about it, winning is the very least we have to do.
We beat Georgia and we’re four clear of Scotland – assuming they lose to the Germans. Scotland welcome Poland to Hampden in October before playing Gibraltar. Would you put it past them taking at least four points from those games?
Meanwhile, even with a win on Monday, we’re relying on grabbing another result against Germany or Poland.
Christ.
But Friday was a big night. Not least because it brought the Irish back from the dead. Now, they need to show some signs of life.
That’s a problem from an almost paralyzed unit.
How will we score against Georgia? Maybe an ol’ corner or flicked-on free kick or some mess in the Georgian box of some sort. Maybe, with a bit of luck, we can break the deadlock. We can ‘nick it’.
Then we all know what happens – just like it did against Scotland – we close up shop. At least we try to. Rule number one of being Irish and all that. We close up shop with the most unconvincing of hatches.
So we might nick an unplanned goal. Do we have what it takes to see it out? When was the last time Ireland won a game 1-0?
September 2010. Five years ago was the last time Ireland won a competitive game 1-0. Away to Armenia.
We just sit back until the opposition inevitably come back, then we decide to go for it again. And, usually, it’s too late.
Where do we get a second when Georgia either pull a screamer out of the bag? Or when they score by playing the sort of football they played against Scotland – the sort we’ve only been dreaming about for far too long?
God only knows.
And whilst there is cause for optimism – because someone else has once again done us a favour – there’s still a sobering realisation that we still might have to get out of this mess ourselves.
And that’s not what we’re good at. That’s not what Ireland do.
Not when they don’t try to do it anyway.
