A Complete Explanation Of Everything

It was some indication of the appeal of this game pre-match that the corporate tickets had fallen so far down the pecking order that they arrived in our grubby little hands. Either way, I was happy to go along, never having seen football in Croker and never having had the use of the corporate tickets before.

I could see myself there, swilling the beer down and saying feck it to the match in the bar. Which is what I promptly did, didn't even watch the second half outside, just from the screens in the bar.

This was always set to be a terrible match, given Ireland were out of the qualification hunt barring an incredible series of slip-ups from the Czech Republic (and the Czechs didn't do their part either, winning 3-0 versus Germany in Munich last night), but I was happy to be there to help put one of the final nails in Steve Staunton's coffin.

I never really rated Steve as a player, despite over 100 caps for the country and never really letting us down. He was solid, probably more stolid than solid and his gruff Dundalk demeanour isn't exactly designed for oodles of charisma. He's certainly translated his playing style and passionate enthusiasm to the current crop of Ireland players. Prior to this game, he was talking Cyprus up, just as he did with San Marino and in all fairness after getting a hiding in Nicosia (5-2, the fecking mortification of it!), maybe he was spot on in a sense.

Certainly, we were at Cyprus' level last night. Although, you could discuss why on earth we felt the need to play Joey O'Brien in the centre of the fecking park, that Sammy Lee has just gotten the axe at Bolton probably means Joey's days are numbered in the Premiership in any case. He's over before he's started at international level and that's down to tactical ineptitude from Stan.

There's no defending this, we were supposed to building for the future following the embarrassment of Prague & Bratislava. Nobody had high hopes when the group was drawn for god's sake. The Czechs and the Germans were firm favourites but we could at least have been competitive.

There's a powerful dearth of material on the web this morning investigating last night's debacle, watched by over 50,000 in the flesh. The common consensus of some articles on RTE and Ireland.com, is that Staunton is going to brazen it out somehow. Delaney looks impotent on the sidelines, the Chief Executive of the FAI castrated because he's hitched his horse to the wrong wagon from day one. An international class manager? This guy was putting the cones out for Walsall.

It goes all the way back to Kerr. Why get rid of him?

There was no logical replacement, nobody who looked remotely like a candidate and this was proven when we got a complete novice with absolutely no management credentials.

And that legacy came home to roost last night.

The real question is why Steve Finnan stepped in to save the draw at the death. It was ridiculously fortunate and Cyprus deserved the game and the assembled crowd felt the same way. The derision which followed the final whistle equalled and probably surpassed that heard at the death knell of McCarthy's reign. The legacy of Saipan fuelled that, last night was simply bewilderment and frustration at the idea of being managed by a man so clearly out of his depth, so incapable of giving his players any real sense of urgency.

Steve Finnan did not do the valiant thing last night.

He should have stroked the ball fucking wide and stopped prolonging this agony.

The jeers of 50,000 at the end confirmed this sentiment was not just my own.