Harry Arter keen to play part in Ireland’s next chapter

If Harry Arter ends up playing a starring role for Ireland at the next World Cup, it would be one of the game's great stories.

Even if he hung up his boots after this game, though, he would have a yarn and a half on his hands: from the Valley to Vienna, one footballer's unlikely journey with unscheduled stops in Staines, Welling and Woking.

Having done so well to battle through and reach the Premier League with Bournemouth, the 26-year-old's career might be said to have come of age at the Ernst Happel Stadium on Saturday night where he started his first competitive international slowly by his own account but found his feet and ultimately fitted right in.

It had been a while coming but he had reason to be happy with himself as he made his way for the team bus afterwards although his mood more reflective than euphoric and his focus was firmly fixed on what the team as a whole had achieved.

“It should be a good moment for the country,” he said. “We didn’t have a great record here, in fact it was a very poor record so it’s good to come here and get a result.

“It puts us in a great position and them in a lot of trouble for the rest of the qualifying campaign.

Pressure

“You looked at the group and you probably would have viewed them as one of the favourites so it’s great to come here and take three points; that’s backed up a few good results before this game so everything’s looking good at the moment.

“I think the pressure was on them to get a result and they haven’t. Going forward, I’m not too sure who they have next [Moldova at home] but by the time they play us [in June] they might be out of it.

“If they come to Ireland having to win or not needing to win because they’re out then of course their mindset is going to be different.

“That’s why it is so important to get points on the board early on and I feel we’ve had a great return so far.”

The win here, he said, was hard fought but well earned with the Irish ultimately proving that they could cope with everything that their opponents had to throw at them.

“Look, we knew before the game that they are a good team and I thought they actually started quite well, in fairness to them; they came out and tried to prove a point.

“In the second half I felt we started much better, though, and once we got our goal we just had to sit in, battle and keep a clean sheet which thankfully we’ve done.

“I thought there were little spells [when Ireland controlled it],” he continued.

"I felt we saw the game out very well; when Aido [Aiden McGeady] came on I thought he calmed things down really well and apart from a chance at the end [which Marc Janko headed well wide] I think they were very limited in the chances that they had. Overall, I think we thoroughly deserved the win."

End of a saga

From a personal point of view, meanwhile, starting the game marked the end of a saga and being part of a winning team, he hopes, might boost his chances of playing a part in the campaign’s next chapter.

“It was good to make my competitive debut and of course when you do that you want to mark it with a good result,” he said.

“We changed the dynamics of the game part of the way in. We set out a certain way and then Whelo [Glenn Whelan] came off we sort of changed the game plan which I thought it worked better for us.

“I thought they played quite well as a team; pressured us up the pitch, they didn’t give you a moment’s rest and the pitch wasn’t great so it was hard to get your foot on the ball.

“They were turning the ball over a bit too easily and the manager let us know at half-time that it wasn’t good enough. First half, I wasn’t too pleased [with my own performance] but the second half was better; I felt we got into them a little bit and I personally decided that I wanted to put my foot in a little bit.”

All of which, he hopes, will stand to him in the manager’s eyes although, he reckons, it will be his next four months back at Bournemouth that will decide whether he can build on this first qualifying appearance and establish himself as a regular.

“There’s a lot of football to be played for me between now and then,” he says. “All of us have club games and me, I personally feel, that’s where the manager will pick you from.

“But obviously it’s good to be part of a team that has won; it won’t do me any harm. Hopefully I can keep doing well.