Hoolahan still no passing fancy for Trapattoni

After two years in which he has struggled to score from open play for his country, Robbie Keane marked his record equalling 125th appearance in green with two in quick succession. By rights it should have been enough for the 32-year-old to steal yet another show here but there were others battling for centre stage in a poorly attended Aviva stadium. The jury was still out at the manager’s press conference as to who had made the most enduring impression.

There are many reasons for Wes Hoolahan’s popularity amongst the press and wider population with the sort of ability he displayed here to pass opponents off the pitch very high amongst them. Giovanni Trapattoni has remained a sceptic but many were hoping that by the final whistle he might have been won over. Instead, he rather pointedly preferred to dwell on the performance of James McCarthy.

The Wigan midfielder had to survive a while in the international wilderness himself but Trapattoni is clearly warming to him. “I told you yesterday that it would be very important for me to see how one man, James McCarthy, did tonight and I am pleased to say he did very, very well.”

Come around to him
This was in response to a question about Hoolahan who, the 74-year-old acknowledged, produced a "fantastic," pass shortly before departing in the 76th minute. If the Dubliner hadn't turned 31 last week, his supporters might take this as evidence that the manager will come around to him.

Trapattoni, in any case, maintains that will consider the midfielder for a start against the Faroe Islands. “It was important to see how well he would do in midfield with McCarthy,” he said. “How well they could contain the situation.

“As second striker he would have more support but he did well and I think we can have trust for him in the future . . . We have to consider whether it is possible to play him with (Glenn) Whelan for example,” he continued before concluding: “We have to consider the nine other players as well.”

The fact that he had done so well against a Georgian side that had been generally reduced to defending deep and in large numbers after the sending off after 20 minutes here of their goalkeeper is a point in his favour, he acknowledged, for the Faroes would not be expected to approach things all that differently.

Hoolahan, to be fair however, was not the only man to make a case yesterday. A typically industrious performance by Simon Cox was rewarded with a goal while Richard Keogh marked his first senior start with one too.

The Norwich City midfielder cleverly won possession back from a throw in to start the attack that led to the goal but James McClean got the actual assist both for that and the one Cox scored, while just about everybody did well really.

Handicapped by having been reduced to 10 men, Temuri Ketsbaia’s men didn’t put up too much resistance at times but Ireland have a habit of making heavy weather of winning against similarly limited opponents and Trapattoni was clearly pleased on this occasion that they had pushed on not just to win but to do it rather well.

'Show our personality'
" I think we started nervously. In the first 10 minutes we missed some passes. But Shane Long could have scored a goal before their goalkeeper made this big mistake (the foul that resulted in his dismissal) and that helped us because it was 10 against 11 but we were able to show our personality.

“James McCarthy played very well, I congratulated him for it, and in the second half McQueen (that’s Stephen Quinn to the rest of us) did well too.

“It’s a good result for the future,” he continued. “It gives us more confidence in the possibilities that we have.”

Richard Dunne and Marc Wilson will both be in contention to start on Friday after playing a game between them here while Keane, is safe to say, will recover the captain’s armband after arriving on to score twice and maintain his remarkable record of having found the net for Ireland at least once in every calendar year since 1998.

“I think that Robbie was destined to do this (become the country’s most capped player) . . . There are players who simply feel the goals and Robbie is one of these. And he’s not finished yet. He can continue and still be great for Ireland.”