RTÉ PUNDIT EAMON Dunphy has defended his reaction to Ireland’s 1-1 draw last night with Germany in the wake of public criticism of the post-match TV analysis of the game.
Dunphy insists he was only doing his job ‘properly as an analyst’ after criticising the Irish display for large chunks of the Euro 2016 qualifier in Gelsenkirchen.
“As a fan we were out of our chairs, hugging each other in the studio,” Dunphy told Darren Frehill on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme today.
“I want us to qualify, everybody wants us to qualify. But if we go about it, the way we went about last night’s game, we won’t qualify because we’re in a very strong group.
“The last 20 minutes we really played with purpose. We gave James McClean plenty of ball and he was dangerous. McGeady played in his right position.
“We brought on Darron Gibson who is a much better footballer than Glenn Whelan. That was a pivotal moment in the match when Whelan went off.
“I can’t stand this talking down of our own players. It’s wrong. They are some very good players. The Wes Hoolahan issue isn’t going to go away.
“Martin O’Neill has more or less said now that he is a player for the Aviva Stadium. We have a team for the home matches maybe and a team for the away matches. We didn’t play well in Georgia either.
“We got out of jail there with a piece of individual brilliance from Aiden McGeady. If you are doing your job properly as an analyst, sometimes people won’t like it. It is not a job you can allow your emotions to get in the way of the facts.”
That may be Dunphy’s view but the people still weren’t happy last night: