Tough Times for Irish Football

The result, and the game itself, produced more than its share of paradox. The North clearly has the weaker team. Their manager too was under pressure to change the squad, along with considerable pressure from critics about his whole approach. Inside the game itself, Blanchflower is regarded with suspicion. He defined his own situation as manager as being a "fairly amateurish one". It's not an approach likely to endear itself to professionals, and even Giles, in unguarded moments, let slip the view that he didn't believe one could approach the job that way.

Yet on the day, as in Dublin, the team produced completely professional performances. So that the weaker squad of players took three points out of four in the two matches, and, barring a Republic win at Wembley - not a completely impossible thing to foresee - will finish above their neighbours in the group. Given the resources at his disposal, Danny's sojourn as Northern Ireland manager has produced results that any manager would be proud of. Even if the side's greater aggression owed something to a desire to send him out in a blaze of glory, and much to their own professional determination to restore their pride after some sickening results, it still said a lot, for the man in charge.

From the Republic's point of view II the game was a disappointing one. In the twenty minute spell before halftime they clearly established themselves as possessing the better footballing credentials. Only a slight lack of sharpness and some excellent saves from Pat Jennings - the one area of the game where Northern Ireland clearly have the advantage - prevented them translating that superiority into a commanding lead at half-time.

It certainly looked like providing the platform for domination of the second half. As it might have done, had the North's early burst in the period immediately after half-time been weathered. But it wasn't. That of course gave the home team the fillip, but it must worry Giles that his team did not respond too well to going a goal down. Admittedly the loss of Daly, added to the absence of Brady, didn't help. But in fact the side's best performances came from midfield, where Martin and Grealish battled right through, and also showed again that they can play. Grealish certainly added weigh t to Giles' pre-game description of him as "a player who has emerged as international class in the last nIne months."

In the long term, the team is clearly taking shape quite nicely. As a comparison with the Northern Ireland team points up, the young players are beginning to come through. The first fruits of the under 21 team are appearing. Pierce O'Leary had a commendable first appearance, giving flesh to all the glowing reports about him. With Lawrenson regaining fitness, the side is in the happy position of having three players of real class for the two vital central defence positions.

The only criticisms in that area were that neither Pierce, perhaps understandably given his inexperience at this level and the tensions of the match, nor, until late in the game, David, really followed the Giles precepts of getting forward, from the back. David though, as did his Arsenal colleague Frank Stapleton, showed signs of sluggishness, suggesting that the training at Arsenal leaves something to be desired.

The rest of the defence though showed problems. Of course Peyton was missing. Yet he too had not yet proved himself fully as an in ternational class goalkeeper, while Kearns' uncertainty was the main source of hope for Northern Ireland through much of the game.

The young full-backs had mixed games. Grimes did excellently. His growth in confidence this season has finally enabled him to begin to approach his full potential. A good player on the ball, who doesn't give it away and can beat people well, he also tackles hard and well. He looks as if he will emerge as a player of real stature in international terms, although the return from injury of Jimmy Holmes may suggest that his most useful position will be in midfield.

Devine though had a less happy time, and did not suggest that he is an adequate replacement for Paddy Mulligan. He looks an athlete, and has that aura of confidence so essential to players at this level. Yet, as his performance in Monday's 7-a-side at the Maccabi grounds had suggested, and this did much to confirm, he has severe defensive limitations. And on this occasion his use of the ball did nothing to compensate for that. With Mulligan not a long-term answer, although it would never do to write off anyone of Mulligan's ability, that could be a problem.

But there may well be a solution at hand. The evidence of this season's first division was reinforced in the practice match on Monday if one read the signs closely. That most unlikely of Irishmen, someone with a black face and a cockney accent, the very talented young Spurs right-back, Chris Hughton, looks an exceptional prospect. He has made a startling contribution to Spurs' recent improvement. With the Irish squad, he was clearly somewhat overawed in his only second taste of football at international level. In the practice game he did not assert himself - no demands for the ball came from him. Yet his defensive work in that game was excellent, and by the end of the week he was clearly feeling more at home as a member of the squad. With his performance for Spurs giving no evidence for fears that he might not assert himself in the way footballers have to to make it, he looks a splendid prospect.

The other area of real doubt is at the front. At the highest level, which is how the team would wish to be judged - "if we were going off on Wednesday to play Argentina, instead of Northern Ireland, I'd still be expecting to get a result" Don Givens had remarked before the game - the side still looks short up front. The problem was exacerbated on Wednesday by Stapleton's sluggishness, and, of course, by Jennings' excellence. Although McGee had improved - his two goals in Monday's practice match and his performance against both Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria certainly justified him having another try, particularly given slight doubts about Givens' injury - he is a bit short of real class at the top level. And more fundamently, he does not show himself for the ball and bring his teammates into play as well as he might.

Steve Heighway has clearly got his appetite and commitment back. He too, though, is not the player he was - the explosiveness of two or more years ago, which is the mark of the strikers in the best international teams, has gone. And unlike midfield, where there are a full complement of established players and young players coming through, there are few signs of new talent on the horizon.

Giles admits the problem, but feels it is not unsurmountable. He believes that one can organize the play in such

a way that one can cover up deficits in that area, and that if one gets on the ball and plays to one's other strengths the goals will come.

It's a debatable point. One suspects that teams which are really going to win things, as opposed to playing well and competing well, need a player of that explosive ability. But if it is to be hidden, one way around it might be to change the formation from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2, playing with two wide men among the midfield berths. If Holmes returns, Grimes, who fulfills that role at his club, could play outside Brady on the left, with Daly outside Grealish on the right. With three of them regular scorers for their clubs, and Grimes threatening to become so, that might be a better source of goals than the more apparently attacking 4-3-3 formation.

It would provide a more fluid formation, and also overcome, a slight question mark about the midfield since Giles retired. For although Brady is unquestionably one of the best mid field players in the world, a player a supreme talents, he is not a general in the Giles sense. There has been incresing evidence too that he can be tightmarked out of the game, as McCreer did so effectively in Dublin. 4-4-2, with less going through him, should provide him with a bit more space to express his great talents, and would make him less central to the team's pattern, so that stifling him would not mean stifling the team.

It is something to ponder as the lead in to the World Cup qualifying matches begins. For on the whole things are on target. The squad is strong one, and getting stronger as the young players emerge. The players are full of confidence, and the Giles blueprint is showing itself in a side capal of playing poised, skilful football the highest level. But the questions in goal and at the front will need to resolved if the side is to make a real breakthrough.

For it is a sad fact that the group is an exceptionally tough one. Three of the sides have almost equal claim to the two places, with Ireland outsiders and only Cyprus no-hopers. Possibly it is the toughest group of all. There are factors in Ireland's favour. The very competitiveness of the group ensures that one bad result won't put you out. All the teams will be picking up points off one another, so that noone is likely to establish a clear lead. Belgium could quite easily make Hollan's life difficult as they have done in previous groups; France could then come through and screw up Belgium's record. So that providing Ireland win their home matches, pick up one or two of the draws away and beat

Cyprus twice, preferably heavily, they sould get through. And as Giles said, "being taken perhaps a little lightly by the other three won't hurt us".