HAVING SCORED TWO goals from set-pieces in tonight’s win over Oman, Ireland’s stand-in captain Richard Keogh believes it is part of the game they can benefit from more.
The Derby County defender, who led the team out for the first time at the Aviva Stadium, had a hand in Ireland’s second goal with a flick-on from Robbie Brady’s corner into the path of goalscorer Alex Pearce after Kevin Doyle had headed home the opener — also from a Brady corner.
The Boys in Green head off to Tbilisi for Sunday’s Euro 2016 opener with Georgia and Keogh was satisfied with the performance in their final warm-up.
“The gaffer said it before that he wants us to score a few more from set plays because they can define games,” the 28-year-old said. “We’re looking a threat from set plays and we’ve got great delivery in our squad. We’ve got to make sure that we defend them right and score a few.
Defensively as a team I thought we were very disciplined. In the second half we won a lot more tackles and our quality shone through in the end.
“The most important thing for us was to stay concentrated as they had a couple of good players but overall it was a good night.”
Hoping to impress in the absence of John O’Shea and Marc Wilson, Keogh was solid in defence and called it the “proudest moment” of his career.
“I’m over the moon really, it couldn’t have gone any better,” he added.
“It’s the proudest moment of my career by a long way and when the gaffer said I was going to be captain I was lost for words really. Walking out onto that pitch is something that I will remember forever and I thank him for that.”
