Andrews’ Focus On Nice Play
Credit:
An experimental side it may have been, but there were enough positives from Tuesday night’s deserved 5-0 victory over Northern Ireland to give Giovanni Trapattoni welcome food for thought, ahead of some very important internationals in the coming months.
In the centre of midfield, Keith Andrews returned from a lengthy injury to play alongside Kevin Foley, as yet another midfield partnership was given a bow by Trap. Andrews, in fact, was the only other player in the starting XI who had scored for Ireland before the game, but after a performance like that, it looks like goals will be something of a regularity in the future.
“I feel good, the last three or four weeks are the best I’ve felt in the past 15-18 months. Having been injured for so long I’m really relieved to be pain free and able to play and train the way I know I can,” said Andrews, following a nightmare year which was heavily disrupted by injury.
“I said when I came in that I just want to get back playing. I’m delighted to be back involved, I really really missed it. Just to be back involved with the squad is great, but you’re never quite happy with that. I just want to be involved in every game and that’s never going to change.”
Ahead of Sunday’s Carling Cup decider with Scotland, which in itself is a warm-up for the crunch European Championship 2012 clash in Macedonia next week, it was the manner in which Ireland went about their business that greatly impressed onlookers, with two spells in particular catching the eye. In the build up to the third goal, Craig Cathcart unlucky to find his own net following a pacey cross from Seamus Coleman, the Boys in Green had enjoyed about five minutes of incisive passing and movement, stretching the Northern Ireland side all over the place. And again, with less than two minutes remaining in the match, Irish players were bolting around everywhere trying to win the ball and seek out a sixth goal.
“We wanted to equip ourselves well and play some good ball,” said Andrews. “When you are playing with players like Robbie (Keane) and Coxy (Simon Cox) up front you can’t really be playing long balls up to them all the time, it’s not their game. Before the game we said we needed to get the ball down and create angles and we did that. But credit to them, they actually started the game quite well and pressed us, doing what we wanted to do to them. It wasn’t till we scored really that settled.”
“We set a tempo to play like we want to against Macedonia. We are not going to go there and stroll through the ninety minutes. We know it is going to be very tough over there so we are just trying to emulate this performance over there.”
Another highlight of the win was the performance of some debutants in the side. Stephen Ward was excellent at left back, blasting in the first goal of the game to settle any potential nerves, Simon Cox was tireless up front and slotted in his own excellent strike for the winner, and David Forde came off the bench for his first International between the sticks. Andrews was delighted for the lot of them, remembering his own debut for Ireland many years ago.
“Yea they were brilliant, I remember my debut so it was great for them. Great to put that on their CV, 5-0 and a debut goal for two of them,” said Andrews.
In the centre of midfield, Keith Andrews returned from a lengthy injury to play alongside Kevin Foley, as yet another midfield partnership was given a bow by Trap. Andrews, in fact, was the only other player in the starting XI who had scored for Ireland before the game, but after a performance like that, it looks like goals will be something of a regularity in the future.
“I feel good, the last three or four weeks are the best I’ve felt in the past 15-18 months. Having been injured for so long I’m really relieved to be pain free and able to play and train the way I know I can,” said Andrews, following a nightmare year which was heavily disrupted by injury.
“I said when I came in that I just want to get back playing. I’m delighted to be back involved, I really really missed it. Just to be back involved with the squad is great, but you’re never quite happy with that. I just want to be involved in every game and that’s never going to change.”
Ahead of Sunday’s Carling Cup decider with Scotland, which in itself is a warm-up for the crunch European Championship 2012 clash in Macedonia next week, it was the manner in which Ireland went about their business that greatly impressed onlookers, with two spells in particular catching the eye. In the build up to the third goal, Craig Cathcart unlucky to find his own net following a pacey cross from Seamus Coleman, the Boys in Green had enjoyed about five minutes of incisive passing and movement, stretching the Northern Ireland side all over the place. And again, with less than two minutes remaining in the match, Irish players were bolting around everywhere trying to win the ball and seek out a sixth goal.
“We wanted to equip ourselves well and play some good ball,” said Andrews. “When you are playing with players like Robbie (Keane) and Coxy (Simon Cox) up front you can’t really be playing long balls up to them all the time, it’s not their game. Before the game we said we needed to get the ball down and create angles and we did that. But credit to them, they actually started the game quite well and pressed us, doing what we wanted to do to them. It wasn’t till we scored really that settled.”
“We set a tempo to play like we want to against Macedonia. We are not going to go there and stroll through the ninety minutes. We know it is going to be very tough over there so we are just trying to emulate this performance over there.”
Another highlight of the win was the performance of some debutants in the side. Stephen Ward was excellent at left back, blasting in the first goal of the game to settle any potential nerves, Simon Cox was tireless up front and slotted in his own excellent strike for the winner, and David Forde came off the bench for his first International between the sticks. Andrews was delighted for the lot of them, remembering his own debut for Ireland many years ago.
“Yea they were brilliant, I remember my debut so it was great for them. Great to put that on their CV, 5-0 and a debut goal for two of them,” said Andrews.
About Gordon Hunt
Gordon Hunt is one of extratime's Dublin based reporters. Having worked with the site since it's inception, Gordon's name is carved into the foundations of extratime's tower block. View Full Profile