Irish struggle but come up with late, late show

The talk afterwards in the Irish camp was of having got what they deserved, but the Maltese goalkeeper, led towards the dressing-room by his team-mates with the tears still running down his face, might have taken a bit of convincing.

He and his defenders had gone terribly close to earning a first competitive point in several years for their country but, as it usually does at some stage, their luck ran out six minutes into injury time at Arklow yesterday when Blackburn's David Worrell ended Ireland's frantic search for a winner from a couple of yards out.

"It came late," said Ireland manager Ian Evans afterwards, "but there were a lot of stoppages during the second half and so the referee is duty bound to add on the time. In the end, though, I was pleased with the way everybody played and, while it's easy to feel sorry for teams who come to defend for a draw, I thought we earned the win with our performance."

The Maltese, of course, are well used to this sort of thing, for over the past couple of seasons alone they've lost by a single goal to the likes of Yugoslavia, Spain and Macedonia in UEFA qualifiers. Still, they must have reckoned they were on the verge of a breakthrough when, a little over half way through the first period of this game, they took the lead against a side seeking only its second win in nine outings.

In fact, Iceland (twice), Northern Ireland and Lithuania have all seen off Ian Evans's side at some point in recent times and perhaps in the circumstances the only surprise was that the sense of expectation was so great amongst the 3,500 spectators who had come to Arklow Town FC's ground yesterday afternoon to see Ireland in action.

What they witnessed was at first rather promising. The Irish enjoyed a near monopoly of possession in the game's opening spell and could have gone in front after a matter of seconds when Pierre Aquila had to clear Alan Lee's downward header of a Danny Boxall cross off his goal line.

It was one of the few occasions during the contest in which the Maltese goalkeeper, Saviour Darmanin, was found wanting. During the first quarter of an hour alone he did well to gather at Daryl Clare's feet and push Lee's powerfully struck drive around his post. Indeed, just about everytime that the home side managed to get a cross in from a good, wide position, he seemed to have little trouble getting up and out to gather cleanly.

At that point though all he appeared to be doing was delaying the inevitable. Under virtually no threat at the back themselves, Ireland were pushing a lot of bodies forward with their full backs constantly attempting to provide attacking options and their centre forwards, Lee and Clare, roaming hungrily all about Darmanin's area.

Lee, in particular, looked impressive, as did Alan Mahon, Boxall and Niall Inman behind him. And had Kevin Kilbane been more effectively involved then the goals, it seemed, would surely flow.

Instead, however, the home side became over-committed in attack and a quick ball out of defence caught Worrell badly out of position. The 20-year-old made a desperate lunge to intercept the upfield ball but succeeded only in knocking it nicely into Malcolm Licari's path, and from the edge of the area the Pieta striker's finish was really rather good.

So too was Clare's a couple of minutes later. The Grimsby striker must, if he reads the tabloids at all, pass a good deal of his time these days waiting by the blower for some big Premiership outfit or other to gove him the call. As it happens, his performance yesterday wasn't nearly as good as the one he produced against Croatia last month but the goal, a delicate near post flick on of Mahon's low left-wing cross, left one in little doubt that he's worthy of a little big time speculation.

Briefly, too, it seemed likely to kick start his team's afternoon. But the frustration continued up front, where Clare forced the goalkeeper off his line again and Mahon shot low and wide before the half-time break.

In the second period there was a little more variation to the Irish approach with the Maltese defence entertained a little less by the home side's triangular passing routines just out of shooting range. The Maltese, though, were growing in confidence as the contest went on and with their powerful second striker, Chucks Nwoko, showing himself well capable of holding the ball up and distributing it effectively, there were a couple of times when a second goal for the visitors didn't exactly seem to be completely out of the question.

Their chance to snatch all three points passed, though, when Robbie Ryan flattened George Mallia and the Slovakian referee rounded off a poor afternoon by deciding that the offence had taken place just outside of the area. Not long afterwards they were defending a Tony Folan corner and praying for the whistle at other end when the dream unravelled. When Colin Hawkins got up well at the far post to turn the ball back across the goalmouth, Darmanin must have known it was out of his hands. Sure enough, after a bit of scramble, the ball struck Worrell on the thigh and, before anybody else in a tightly packed six-yard box could react, the Irish captain poked away his first competitive goal in two and a half years to send Ireland joint top of Group Eight with Croatia on four points.

Republic Of Ireland: O'Reilly (West Ham); Boxall (Brentford), Worrell (Blackburn), Hawkins (St Patrick's Athletic), Ryan (Millwall); Inman (Peterborough), Morgan (St Patrick's Athletic), Mahon (Tranmere), Kilbane (West Brom); Clare (Grimsby), Lee (Aston Villa). Subs: McPhail (Leeds) for Mahon (56 mins); Folan (Brentford) for Inman (77 mins).

Malta: Darmanin; Grima, Aquila, Scicluna; Camenzuli, Mallia, Galea, Holland, Ciantar; Licari, Nwoko. Subs: L Azzopardi for Ciantar (51 mins), Debono for Holland (70 mins), Mamo for Nwoko (77 mins).

Referee: G Ladislav (Slovenia).