Martin O’Neill’s journeyman army full of fighters who never surrender

At the soccer pitch down from the FAI offices in Abbotstown, you'd want to mind your step lest you go out on your ear. Wednesday morning has dawned a lot drier than Tuesday but not much warmer and so The Irish Times pulls its hoodie up around its ears for the duration of the 15 minutes the press is allowed in to training. Rookie mistake.

Since pulled-up hoodies are to security men what unsheathed machetes are to the rest of us, questions are asked and bona fides sought. It takes the good offices of the man from the Daily Mail to avert an incident. Phew. Wouldn't want to miss a whole 15 minutes of players jogging laps and doing keepy-uppies to warm up.

In fairness, covering big-time sport is nearly always artificial these days and the national soccer team is no more distant than, say, a top-level hurling or football side. Indeed, the press wouldn’t get in the gate of a Dublin or Kilkenny training session the week of a game, never mind being allowed to hang around and watch for a quarter of an hour. So we take what we get and pronounce it half a loaf.

Over the space of two days, six players are offered up for press duties. The two Dundalk new boys Daryl Horgan and Andy Boyle are up on Tuesday, while Wednesday brings goalkeepers in Darren Randolph and Colin Doyle, as well as Callum O'Dowda and David McGoldrick. Of the sextet, only Randolph will start against Austria and even with a cavalcade of injuries, it's a stretch to see any of the rest of them getting game-time.

In that respect, the loaf is slimming by the minute. But actually, the longer you spend with some of these fringe members of the squad, the better idea you get of who this Ireland team is in 2016. They are not a bling-heavy bunch. They’re not overly guarded, they don’t suspect a hidden grenade tucked in the lining of every question. For all the zeal of the security heavies, they don’t feel as closed-off as some other vintages.

Ruthless sport

They are, in the main, journeymen. That’s not meant to be insulting. A journeyman pro is something to be. They are likeable professionals carving out credible careers in a ruthless sport. Of the 28 who travelled to Vienna on Thursday, only six could be said to be starting week-in, week-out in the Premier League. The Dundalk pair are the only ones who have featured in Europe this season – although the injured Shane Long would obviously be in that cohort if fit.

They are not spring chickens. At 21, O’Dowda is the youngest player in the squad by three years. Horgan, Robbie Brady, Jeff Hendrick and Shane Duffy are all 24. Everyone else is 25 or older. Ten of them are over 30. For nearly half the squad, the best-case scenario is that they get to sign two more professional contracts before it’s over. At that age, at their level, the terms generally don’t improve from deal to deal.

They’ve all had to fight. They’ve all had to overcome. Colin Doyle is in the squad seven years after his last call-up, nine years after his only cap. He sat on the bench at Birmingham for a few seasons longer than he probably should have but he had to because life was baked into the cake along with football.

His son Liam had meningitis early in life and Doyle couldn’t go up-rooting his family at such a fraught time. He played 33 games for Birmingham across 12 seasons before moving to Blackpool in 2015 and then onto Bradford this summer. It was essentially a free transfer but league rules meant Bradford had to pony up the princely sum of £1 for him. “I got my 10 per cent of the fee,” he smiles.

Doyle is behind Randolph and Kieren Westwood in the pecking order, probably behind the injured Rob Elliot too. But not so far away that it wasn’t worth his time turning up. He’s 31, still young for a goalkeeper. Bradford are third in League One, have only been beaten once all season and boast the second best defence in the division. Doyle will keep at it, plugging away in a game that has dropped plenty of hints down the years that it didn’t fancy him.

Go through the Ireland squad and his story is far from unique. Even the mainstays have had their trials to endure. Brady was a child star but Manchester United passed on him eventually, five years after signing him on his 16th birthday. Jon Walters played four games in the Premier League for Bolton as a teenager and then had to wait seven years and nine clubs to kick another ball in the top flight.

Singing ballads

Even a made-for-life success like Séamus Coleman was 10 days into his 22nd year before he made his debut in English football. And Wes Hoolahan, sure we’ll be singing ballads for the wrongs wrought on poor Wes long after he’s in the grave.

Or take someone like McGoldrick. The Ipswich forward will be 29 in a couple of weeks. He’s had seven clubs in a career made up of mostly loan spells here and there. He’s been with Ipswich since 2013, the longest he’s laid his hat at any stop. From a distance, he looks full of attitude and tattooed cockiness. But in person, he’s soft-spoken and thoughtful.

Born in Nottingham, he was given up for adoption and it was only in later life when he went rooting through his family tree that he found an Irish grandfather. Gordon Strachan came looking for him to play for Scotland but he held out for a call from Martin O’Neill and had a brilliant debut against the USA in 2014, laying on two goals in a 4-1 win. Injuries have left him stuck on four caps and meant he couldn’t force his way into the squad for the Euros. But he’s kept on keeping on.

“It’s been frustrating,” he says. “A stop-start two years. But it’s a part of football. I’m a humble guy and I’m privileged to be doing what I’m doing. A lot of kids would swap places with me. I’ve got to take the injuries on the chin and I’ve got to come back stronger every time. I want to get more caps. I want to play more games for my club. I’ve just got to keep going and keep fighting and I’m sure the caps will keep coming.

“I’ve been through stuff in my life and you have to humble yourself. I’m privileged to play for my country. I’m privileged to be a footballer. I watch the news and I see things and I remember things. I could be in most places today and like I say, every young boy wants to be a footballer. I’m a footballer so I can’t give up.”

Mantra

As a mantra, it wouldn’t look out of place scrawled along the side of the Ireland team bus. Tonight in Vienna, they will play their 20th competitive game under Martin O’Neill. The record so far stands at Played 19 Won 9 Lost 4 Drawn 6. In eight of those 19 games, they’ve scored a goal after the 75th minute. In six of those eight, the goal has either put them ahead or drawn them level. They can’t give up. Or they don’t, at any rate.

You’ll go a long way to building bridges with your public if you keep scoring late goals. They were what carried Ireland through the qualifying campaign for the Euros – Aiden McGeady against Georgia, John O’Shea against Germany, Long against Poland, Brady against Bosnia. And of course Brady’s immortal header against Italy in the summer.

So when Daryl Murphy equalised away in Serbia in the first game of this campaign, it felt more like a trademark than a surprise. Of course they dug something out and kept surviving. That’s who they are.

To be unbeaten after three games isn't earth-shattering stuff but it's better than plenty of campaigns that have gone in the past. You have to go back 22 years and 10 campaigns to find the last time Ireland had more than seven points after three games. They were three from three at this point in the qualifying campaign for Euro 96 – so long ago that Roy Keane scored his first international goal and both John Aldridge and Andy Townsend scored their penultimate one in a 4-0 win over Northern Ireland.

Oceans have passed under bridge since then and better teams than this one have made worse starts. Group D looks like turning out to be the sort of horse race that wouldn’t particularly impress the handicapper and you’ll likely be able to throw a blanket over the first four as they approach the line next October. So if O’Neill’s side can keep drawing away and winning at home, they won’t have too many ahead of them.

Until then, they will continue to be what they are. Not world-beaters. No great shakes. And yet still just about great enough to shake whatever they come up against.

It’s hard to ask for much more than that out of any Ireland football team.