Ireland get a helping hand

UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFYING: Ireland 2 Armenia 1:IT WAS, by some distance, the most thrilling home game of Ireland's campaign and with stakes so high there was finally a big crowd there to see it.

The supporters got the win they had been hoping for too along with more excitement than any of them could have bargained for. Quite how many would want to relive an exasperating second half, though, is another matter altogether.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s men led the game 2-0 by the time that second period was 15 minutes old thanks to an own goal before the break and a close-range Richard Dunne effort and when it ended they might, had the breaks continued to go exclusively their way, have even led by more.

Aiden McGeady should have scored after good work by Damien Duff a little earlier, but somehow he could only manage to push the ball to the feet of a defender. Stephen Hunt came close near the end but his good run merely resulted in a corner kick.

But to suggest this victory over a side that had been reduced to 10 men less than a quarter of the way through the game was remotely straightforward would be terribly misleading.

Aside from Armenia’s consolation effort ending the Republic of Ireland’s eight-match run without conceding, the pressure they exerted on the hosts was made to tell in a costly way with Kevin Doyle sent off for a second yellow card nine minutes from time.

It will keep the Wolves striker out of the play-off next month for which Robbie Keane is already a significant doubt.

Vardan Minasyan had talked about his young side’s inexperience costing them a year ago in Yerevan but they showed great composure in the early stages of this crucial game. In open play over the course of the opening 25 minutes they held their own, passing the ball at least as well as the home side and creating half chances every bit as good as anything cooked up by Simon Cox or Kevin Doyle.

Then, just a little over quarter of the way into the game they produced the first act in a two-part implosion when their goalkeeper was controversially sent off for a handball just outside the area.

Roman Berezovsky looked horrified when the Spanish referee showed him a straight red card because it was not altogether clear whether he had used his hands.

Cox suggested afterwards he felt the goalkeeper had handled, but the striker was fortunate himself as he seemed to control the long, high ball with his arm before attempting to lift the ball beyond the onrushing goalkeeper.

It has to be said Berezovsky did not do his cause any good by raising both of his arms as he came charging forward, but overall the decision looked harsh.

Perhaps Cox should have owned up and maybe the FAI will offer a replay or ask that Armenia get to be the ninth team in the play-offs, but it seems more likely that John Delaney and the supporters will be happy enough to accept the referee’s decision as final when they see the replays.

The Armenians, in any case, had little option but to change things and Minasyan brought on uncapped 20-year-old goalkeeper Arsen Petrosyan for Edgar Malakyan. And it was to the visitor’s credit that they coped very well with just 10 men for most of the remaining game.

Henrik Mkhitaryan, who had started alongside Karlen Mkrtchyan as one of two holding midfielders behind three more offensive ones and a solitary striker, had always enjoyed a licence to roam but with a man missing from Yura Movsisyan’s supporting trio he now sought to get forward with greater urgency whenever his side was in possession.

Clearly, though, the Irish defence was going to benefit from their opponents’ setback and the balance of things shifted slightly almost immediately.

Richard Dunne, already the outstanding performer in the Irish back four, started to drive things forward with growing confidence and the locals showed occasional signs of settling in with the intention of exploiting the space that would almost inevitably start to open up for them over the course of the night.

Despite starting to look capable of taking a grip on things, however, they created little enough with neither winger producing much by way of a final ball.

Kevin Doyle was heroic in the centre, winning countless flick-ons, running tirelessly to unsettle opponents in possession and more than once winning possession in unpromising positions.

He rarely got any sort of sight of goal, though. Instead, it was man-of-the-match Cox to whom the bulk of Ireland’s half chances fell and the West Brom striker never quite got to grips with any of them.

Behind them, Keith Andrews turned in one of his best performances for his country with the 31-year-old covering an immense amount of ground to lend a hand in both defence and attack. His shoulder charge on Mkhitaryan just outside the area after McGeady had played Stephen Kelly into trouble out on the left may well have prevented what would have been the game’s opening goal while he went desperately close to finding the bottom corner himself nine minutes after the break when Cox laid the ball neatly into his path and the midfielder fired a foot the wrong side of the left hand post.

Out wide, Duff and McGeady were finding it harder to make a meaningful impact at least until the Dubliner set up the first goal. His low cross was decent but Doyle had come short and ended up attempting a back heel which he missed only for Valeri Aleksanyan, under no pressure at all, to poke it home at the far post.

That should have been the start of a stroll to which the hosts could have added a bit of swagger when Dunne added a second with his thigh from a yard out on the hour but this Ireland side simply doesn’t do easy.

The visitors got a well deserved goal back a couple of minutes later when Gevorg Ghazaryan and Movsisyan were allowed to exchange passes inside the area before setting up the unmarked Mkhitaryan for a low drive that Given might feel he could have saved.

There followed chances for an equaliser which created a tense atmosphere in the closing stage but in truth the Armenian’s finishing was never good enough as the Irish made it safely through to the final whistle and the play-offs.