Gavin Cooney

AND SO HERE we are again, back in the valley of tears. 

What all hoped would be another stomach-churning, queasy afternoon giving way to an electrifying evening has instead become Just Another Day with an Ireland game stitched onto the end. That Ireland will play North Macedonia in this contractually obligated friendly for the dispossessed is unspeakably grim, but speak we must. Damn these existing contractual obligations.

Heimir Hallgrimsson has rather aptly likened this sad haze to the aftermath of a car crash, and he says the best thing to do is to avoid letting any doubts or anxieties fester by getting back out there on the road. 

And to be fair to Uefa, they have handed us the keys without a second thought. The game is naturally sold out, but it remains to be seen how many ticket-holders actually turn up. The players would certainly benefit from a public display of appreciation, given some trooped back from Prague feeling they had let the country down. Many have since met fans around Dublin who have assured them it is the precise opposite. Plus, a big crowd would bring a cathartic end to what was nonetheless Ireland’s best qualifying campaign in a decade. 

“We always need a lift from the fans, no matter what”, says Hallgrimsson. “But I think the players are all professionals, we don’t need special motivation when you play for your country. Obviously it is a disappointment not to be playing for the World Cup, for obvious reasons, everyone understands that.

“What we want is to show the fans, who have been fantastic, a good game, a solid performance, and I don’t even doubt that we will have support from them, I felt it after the game, the support and even the positivity after not winning that game, we felt the love and support from the people here.”

North Macedonia travel to Dublin having been hammered 4-0 by Denmark, so tomorrow will be a union of teams who have experience of four-goal hammerings by the Danes in a World Cup play-off. They too are struggling to see the point of all of this – one North Macedonian newspaper called this “the most unimportant game in our history” – and they have had a couple of high-profile withdrawals, including Rangers’ Bojan Miovski and the highly-experienced Aleksandar Trajkovski, now playing his football in Croatia with Lokomotiv Zagreb. 

It’s a testament to the vibe in the Irish camp that there have been no elective withdrawals. Sammie Szmodics is back in England recovering from his head injury, while Jack Taylor has flown home for personal reasons. Robbie Brady is unavailable tonight with a hamstring strain. 

This is regrettably the first tentative step on the road to Euro 2028, but Hallgrimsson says the time for experimentation will come, beginning with the May camp in Spain, replete with friendly match against Grenada. You can therefore expect the same system and few changes from the start tonight, as the manager seeks a good performance and result with which to draw the line on this qualifying campaign.

With Taylor unavailable, Jason Knight may come in to start, unless Hallgrimsson is tempted to cleave to his ‘get-back-on-the-road’ analogy and give Alan Browne a start after his torture in Prague. If Bosun Lawal is to make his debut tonight, it will be off the bench. It’s difficult to see Seamus Coleman and Chiedozie Ogbene starting again, given their exertions in Prague came from a standing start at club level. With Liam Scales available once again, Jake O’Brien could shift across to right wing-back. Browne is an option in this position too. 

Harvey Vale may well make a full debut in place of Ogbene, with Ireland’s attacking options depleted in Szmodics’ absence. Portsmouth winger Millenic Alli has been called up to the squad yesterday, though Hallgrimsson was cool on the prospect of his debut coming tonight. 

With up to eight substitutes permitted, the Irish team that finishes will bear little resemblance to that which started, but Hallgrimsson is hoping to salvage whatever of November’s momentum survived the Prague dejection. 

“That’s where we should focus on, trying to take correct steps to continue growing”, says Hallgrimsson. “For me that’s more important than winning or losing. Sometimes it is like this in that you’re unlucky by conceding a goal after a good performance.

“Normally if you have good performance, and how we’ve been playing, we will this game tomorrow if we continue to play the same way. That’s where my confidence is.” 

Alas this is a night to spend wondering what might have been. 

Ireland (Possible XI): Kelleher; O’Brien, Collins, O’Shea, Scales, Manning; Molumby, Knight; Vale, Azaz; Parrott