Rattled Irish draw little comfort

SOCCER: Rep of Ireland 0 Slovakia 0:IF THE aim last night at the Aviva Stadium had been to preserve Ireland's unbeaten record and extend their now record run of clean sheets then we'd be hailing some heroes this morning.

Sadly, with Russia having gone clear at the top of Group B earlier in the day, there was a real urgency about taking all three points against the other main contenders for one of the top spots in Group B. And for all the spirit they showed late on as they hurled themselves forward in search of a winner, Giovanni Trapattoni’s men simply didn’t do enough over the course of the 90 minutes to justify a claim that they should have had the victory.

Their efforts were not entirely in vain; because of the way the head to head is decided in the current campaign they will now finish ahead of Slovakia in the group if the two sides finish level on points thanks to their goal in Zilina last October. On the downside, however, the man who scored it, Sean St Ledger, will miss next week’s encounter at the Luzhniki after picking up a booking late on in this game.

The pace of the whole thing here, as it had been in Zilina, was tremendous but sadly the quality was generally much as it had been that night too with neither side showing any real capacity to settle on the ball and set about unlocking their opponents’ defence.

The Slovaks, to be fair, looked the more likely to do it over the course of the first 45 minutes. Vladimir Weiss’s men might have found themselves on the back foot during the early exchanges but the balance of the game shifted quickly enough and through most of the opening period it was they who enjoyed the better of things in terms of possession and territorial advantage.

They were helped to a significant extent by persistently sloppy passing by the home side who quickly found themselves having to defend deep for long spells and incapable of stringing enough passes together to play their way forward when they did win the ball.

As expected, Marek Hamsik proved a key player for the Slovaks with the Napoli midfielder producing some of the game’s better touches and passes. All around him there seemed to a sense of purpose about the visitors when they looked to move in on goal with Miroslav Stoch, Vladimir Weiss junior and lone striker Filip Holosko all linking up well at times to leave the Irish back four looking more than a little rattled.

To be fair, the Irish defence covered for each other well when the situation most urgently required it with Richard Dunne mopping up impressively when St Ledger was left high and dry by Weiss’s angled through ball for Holosko while Stephen Ward produced a terrific last-gasp challenge to save the day when Hamsik appeared to have set the Besiktas striker up beautifully.

Still, Slovakia goalkeeper Jan Mucha was forced into the best save of the opening hour when Damien Duff played a quick exchange of passes with Keith Andrews then improvised impressively to get away a shot that the goalkeeper did well to parry beyond the lurking Keane.

The Irish captain had his work cut out to make a real impact on things given how entrenched inside its own half the home side tended to become at times and he wasn’t helped by the fact that, having started brightly, Kevin Doyle, looked completely out of sorts.

In midfield, Andrews and Glenn Whelan did their best to interrupt the flow of the Slovak play, and with some success it must be said, but the pair generally found themselves outnumbered and never came close to really imposing themselves on the contest.

In the end, though, it was the visiting side who seemed better equipped to capitalise on the possession won and, prior to the last couple of minutes, certainly they enjoyed the better chances as players tired, the Irish sought to shift things forward in the hope of generating more of a threat and so space in the Irish half began to open up.

Weiss could have scored just short of an hour in and Hamsik surely would have had St Ledger not thrown himself in front of the shot fairly heroically. Weiss then forced Ward into a brave clearance under pressure with a ball whipped across the face of the goal and Hamsik brought Given back into things with a shot that swerved but thankfully not enough to seriously trouble the goalkeeper.

For all of that, though, the hosts might easily have grabbed a winner themselves. Their various claims for penalties were all weak enough but Keane looked like a man who knew he might have done better when Duff picked him out with a magnificent cross that floated over Martin Skrtel’s head and on to the Dubliner’s.

Keane narrowly missed the target, though, just as Simon Cox, on for Doyle, did when he decided to shoot rather than push the ball slightly to his left where Andrews clearly reckoned he had a better sight of goal and Dunne miscued entirely with a promising header that was virtually the last touch of the game.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Aston Villa); O'Shea (Sunderland), Dunne (Aston Villa), St Ledger (Leicester City), Ward (Wolves); Duff (Fulham), Andrews (Ipswich Town), Whelan (Stoke City), McGeady (Spartak Moscow); Keane (LA Galaxy), Doyle (Wolves). Subs: Cox (West Brom) for Doyle (64 mins), Hunt (Wolves) for McGeady (85 mins).

SLOVAKIA: Mucha; Pekarik, Skrtel, Durica, Cech; Kucka, Karhan; Hamsik, Stoch, Weiss; Holosko. Subs: Guede for Kucka (77 mins), Jendrisek for Weiss (86 mins), Vittek for Holosko (88 mins).

Referee: Pedro Proenca (Portugal).