“The supporters see the potential in the team, they know we’re not perfect.”
Stephen Kenny has declared that the Republic of Ireland’s 3-0 victory over Scotland is the team’s ‘most signficant’ home win in seven years.
Alan Browne, Troy Parrott and Michael Obafemi scored for the Boys in Green on Saturday as they outplayed Scotland at a packed Aviva Stadium.
The victory is Ireland’s first win in the Uefa Nations League, their first at home in a competitive match in three years and their biggest competitive win in Dublin since beating Gibraltar 7-0 in 2014.
Stephen Kenny: Scotland win Ireland’s best result at home in seven years.
Kenny said that the win over Scotland was the ‘most significant’ victory Ireland have recorded at the Aviva Stadium since 2015.
On that occasion, the Boys in Green beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 to qualify for Euro 2016.
“I asked the players what was the most significant victory that they had in the Aviva Stadium,” the former Dundalk coach told reporters in his post-match press conference.
“It was probably 2015 against Bosnia, so it’s the biggest result. We told the players ‘you can enjoy that with your families’ because it’s the most significant home victory in seven years.”
Stephen Kenny: Irish public are behind the Ireland team.
Kenny came into the game under pressure after losing to Armenia and Ukraine over the last week. The Ireland coach, however, did not want to gloat after hammering the Scots, who ranked above Ireland in the Fifa rankings (39 v 49).
Kenny said he did not view the victory as some form of ‘justification’ for his position as manager. And instead spoke about the connection between the team and supporters.
“I’m not here to make any statements of justification,” Kenny said.
“I’m not even viewing it like that really. I know what I’m doing, I’m very clear on what I’m doing and this has been a really radical shift in the players that we’ve brought through. It’s very exciting and clearly, the public identifies with it.
“We had setbacks this week and we’re not happy with ourselves about that, particularly the defeat in Armenia,” Kenny continued.
“The supporters see the potential in the team, they know we’re not perfect. We have a lot of imperfections.”
"It's a significant win by the players"
Stephen Kenny reacts to Ireland's 3-0 win over Scotland and gives his take on the factors he feels led to the result #RTESoccer #COYBIG #IRLSCO #NationsLeague
Match report: https://t.co/BPAGpqQIJg pic.twitter.com/koQip3TeMg
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) June 11, 2022
Ireland 3-0 Scotland.
Meanwhile, Scotland manager Steve Clarke said that Ireland fully deserved to win and that his side ‘didn’t cope’ with the home team’s ‘front foot’ performance.
Next up for Ireland is a trip to Poland to play Ukraine in their final game of the international window. Kenny said that he may be without Obafemi, Saturday’s man of the match, for the game after he tweaked his groin.
John Egan could also miss the game and Shane Duffy will be suspended.
