David Sneyd

THE LARGE TELEVISION that was being set up on one side of the training pitch caught the eye as the Republic of Ireland players prepared for their final session ahead of tonight’s clash with Armenia.

This was the calm before a storm of World Cup consequence, the stage of a qualifying campaign that is on the precipice between revolt and rejuvenation.

Heimir Hallgrímsson, John O’Shea and Paddy McCarthy were all gathered by the screen going through some final checks before the players emerged, while FAI board member and chair of its international and high performance committee Packie Bonner also patrolled the perimeter taking a keen interest in preparations.

The screen was off for the first 15 minutes that was open to the media but once the serious business began different phases of defensive and attacking play were loaded up on slides for the management team to go through at different intervals with the players, reinforcing the message they wanted to get across with the added benefit of clear, visual instruction.

Part of the thinking behind the screen being pitch side during the session was also a very practical one, so the aim of being able to flick through scenarios on screen was done with a view to conserving energy in the players’ legs after Saturday’s game with Portugal rather than spending more time needing them to run through situations on the pitch.

Standard enough stuff, just like some of the additional markings around the box, in midfield, and on the flanks – that were also guidelines for the session and an important reference for players when it comes to their positioning depending on different times in the game.

Hallgrímsson explained earlier during the pre-match press conference that the tactics and game plan were finalised for the Armenia game coming into camp, and it was just a matter of determining the players who were in the best possible shape to carry it out following the effort put in against Portugal in Lisbon on Saturday night.

Had Ireland managed to hold out and not concede that Ruben Neves goal in the 91st minute some tired bodies would still feel energised by a greater sense of possibility.

Hallgrímsson said he thinks “this team has everything to qualify for the World Cup” and they could yet end this international window in the play-off spot should Portugal beat Hungary by two or more goals and Ireland inflict a victory by the same margin over a side that could have comfortably beaten them by two or three more than the 2-1 score line in Yerevan.

Roberto Martinez said in the aftermath of Ireland’s gallant effort – and defeat – in Lisbon that they were like a “wounded” team. The Portugal manager was praising the resilience on show but that sense of hurt is also part of the problem for Ireland.

It feels like death by a thousand cuts rather than some kind of painful healing process that will eventually lead to salvation.

“I hate losing to be honest, I really hate it and in my career I’ve lost a lot,” captain Nathan Collins said.

“It’s just, you know, I’ve played for some teams that have, we’re probably not at like the top of the league and you lose games and you have to pick yourself back up you have to get back on the horse, kind of go again and again, the next game the next game.

“You might lose and it just it takes so much out of you but it’s that it’s that fire inside me where I hate losing, I always want to change, I always want to turn that around.”

For Ireland, the question is how?

Hallgrímsson threw out an early reducer – the sub-editor’s equivalent of Roy Keane’s tackle on Marc Overmars – in his press conference when he stated that he would take “a shitty” performance because it is all about the result.

It’s fair to say those who purchased the 3,000 extra tickets between the defeat in Lisbon and yesterday’s late morning training session did so on the basis they were willing to embrace the same methodology.

Are we really any closer to knowing how Ireland might be capable of doing so? Over the course of half an hour it was put to Hallgrimsson and Collins at different times about the need for patience but also starting the game with intensity.

The manager was asked about how important conviction and purpose would be in his players’ approach, but also staying calm and composed. Sometimes it feels like Ireland are capable of doing all of the above in a single passage of play that ends in frustration.

Hallgrímsson repeated a familiar and understandable mantra of the importance of being structured and disciplined as a team unit, and also pointed out that one of the key elements of Armenia’s approach that is much different under manager Yeghishe Melikyan is the level of aggression in their approach.

No surprise, then, that later in the day their manager said “it will be war” as they look to do the double over Ireland that could very likely see them into second spot and keep the Boys in Green rooted to the bottom of the group.

The consequence of such a scenario with two games remaining would seem pretty clear unless the healing process can finally begin.