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Mary Hannigan: Ireland need a miracle, but find some dignity against Gibraltar

Stephen Kenny’s swansong hits a high note and Gerry Thornley addresses that ‘hoary old chestnut’ about quarter-final glass ceilings

Ireland manager Stephen Kenny after his side's comfortable 4-0 win over Gibraltar in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

Mary Hannigan's face
Mary Hannigan
Tue Oct 17 2023 - 10:14

Last night’s defeat to Ireland in Faro might have been Gibraltar’s 44th in 44 qualifying games, so “there is little to write home about,” Gavin Cummiskey writes home about, but after the campaign Stephen Kenny’s men have endured, you’d take that 4-0 win and give it a big hug.

No little relief, then, for Kenny after “mercifully, a routine victory,” the manager now “hoping for a miracle run of results from other groups” to keep alive the team’s hopes of reaching a qualifying play-off next March.

It seems highly unlikely, though, that he will still be in charge by then, next month’s final group game against the Netherlands and a friendly against New Zealand (we owe that nation one) probably his swansong as Irish manager. And he should be left in charge for those games, says Ken Early, and be allowed “finish his term with as much dignity as he can gather”.

In rugby, Gerry Thornley reflects on “a golden chance missed” for Ireland at the World Cup. “When,” he asks, “is an Irish team ever going to go into a quarter-final with the same momentum and body of work as this one?”

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He addresses that “hoary old chestnut” about quarter-final glass ceilings and tries to come up with some answers, but in his column looking back at the refereeing in the quarter-finals, Owen Doyle insists that no finger of blame can be pointed in Wayne Barnes’ direction for Ireland’s exit.

Johnny Watterson, meanwhile, shares his thoughts on that strange breed of Irish folk who took “immense pleasure” in Ireland’s defeat to New Zealand, a phenomenon, he says, that has been around for some time. “Taking pleasure from a national rugby team being beaten seems such a joyless bit of craic,” he writes.

In Gaelic games, Seán Moran reports on the Gaelic Players Association’s call for the GAA to abolish its sundry pre-season competitions, the packed calendar a major concern for them on the player welfare front. “Unfortunately, they’re not listening to the players on this matter,” said the GPA’s chief executive Tom Parsons, and if that carries on then the players will take matters into their own hands and change will happen through “conflict”.

And a week after he defended his World Championship title, Rhys McClenaghan talks to Ian O’Riordan about having to overcome mental challenges along the way, the gymnast beset by a loss of confidence and panic attacks. “There’s still work to be done, this gold medal doesn’t fix me, it doesn’t make me a happy person overall,” he says, “but it certainly helps that I understand that there’s work to be done in my mind.”

TV Watch: If you have figured out how you can watch Channel 4′s geoblocked football internationals in Ireland, then you can tune in to the Euro qualifier between England and Italy tonight (7.45pm). Other than that, there’s Northern Ireland’s qualifier against Slovenia (Premier Sports 1, 7.45pm) and the friendly between France and Scotland (Premier Sports 2, 8pm).