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Magnusson: "The game itself was poor," said Kerr. Ryan Byrne/INPHO
Swizzed

Brian Kerr: 'Ireland fans should look for their money back - they were swizzed'

Former Ireland boss pulls no punches in his assessment of last night’s friendly.

IT’S SAFE TO say that Brian Kerr was not at all impressed by the standard of football on show last night.

Hordur Bjorgvin Magnusson’s free-kick was a rare flicker of quality as Iceland’s B team beat Ireland’s B team 1-0 in an otherwise drab international friendly.

Reflecting on the game on RTÉ Morning Ireland, former Ireland manager Kerr pulled no punches.

“Well, it wasn’t very good at all,” he told Darren Frehill.

The 37,000 people — if there was that there, I don’t believe there was — but if they paid in, they’d be within their rights to go to the consumer association and look for their money back. They were swizzed out of an international match.

“We had only two players that you’d consider regulars, Robbie Brady and James McClean, and Iceland had three.

“The match is pitched as an international between the team that got to the semi-finals of the Euros in the summer [Iceland were knocked out in the quarter-finals] and the Republic of Ireland when really it was the Republic of Ireland’s second-string, and in some cases third-string, against Iceland with most of their best players not present, gone back to their clubs or not selected.”

With no competitive game until Austria visit in June, Martin O’Neill used the opportunity to hand four international debuts to Conor Hourihane, John Egan, Daryl Horgan and Andy Boyle.

But Ireland showed little in the way of imagination, and Kerr was scathing about the quality of their play.

“The game itself was poor, it was low tempo, there was very little pattern to it on our side.

“We’re a bit like a mongrel dog with no nice patches on it. We’re neither a direct long ball team nor a passing team that does some nice things.”

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