It was far from swashbuckling stuff in Malta but Callum Robinson’s goal proved to be enough for Stephen Kenny’s men to finish the year with a victory.
Having lost at home to Norway last Thursday, it was clear Ireland had to win in Malta – for the confidence of the group as much as anything else. And while the 1-0 win at the Ta’ Qali Stadium wasn’t quite a forgettable encounter, it would have been memorable for very different reasons had Robinson not netted in the 55th minute.
“It was important to keep a clean sheet tonight,” said Kenny. “They were two tough games in three days. The Norway game had a high level of intensity and it was a very tactical game, and it really took a lot out of the players I felt.
“But I think we learned a lot from the Norway game and they paid us a lot of respect. Tonight against Malta, no game in international football away from home is easy to win.
“One of the things about Malta is that they have had an improved record recently, they’ve got some good results recently, so there is a little bit of a resurgence there. There is no doubt that the match itself wasn’t a classic, far from it.
“But we were pleased that we got a clean sheet and there were some good aspects to it. But we have played a lot better and lost.”
Ireland didn’t cause Malta a huge amount of problems throughout the evening and certainly the delivery and execution of set pieces was disappointing from an Ireland perspective.
“To be fair, it was a really blustery, windy night and the in-swinging corner kicks were blowing right into the goalkeeper. And their goalkeeper did well, to be fair, he caught everything.
“We changed it at half-time and went with out-swingers. The wind died a bit at half-time as well. But we weren’t successful on set-plays.”
Jamie McGrath played in the middle of the field for Ireland and while the Dundee United man admits there was frustration going in scoreless at half-time, he felt Ireland showed good composure to eventually break Malta down in the second half.
“We knew we had to be patient with it,” said McGrath.
“We didn’t create enough clear-cut chances in the first half. They’ve been in a bit of form so we knew it was going to be tough. International football is never easy, no matter who the opponent is.
“We knew at half-time we had to be patient, we couldn’t get frustrated with ourselves. We had to try to unlock the door a bit better than we had.”
