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ARMENIA 4 - IRELAND 1 IT'S DON WRONG! U-21 'HORROR SHOW'
The Sun
November 18, 2009 Wednesday
England
DON GIVENS' Ireland side were torn apart in Armenia yesterday in what
the Under-21 boss called 'a horror show'.
Winless in six games, Ireland are bottom of Group Two of their UEFA
Championships qualifying group.
The Armenians went into the tie having just picked up their first
point at home to Estonia.
But they were comfortable winners, with striker Henrikh Mkhitaryan
bagging a hat-trick.
Givens can point to the absence of experienced players such as Owen
Garvan, Séamus Coleman and James McCarthy, but he acknowledged the
display was woefully inept.
He said: "It was by far the worst performance I can remember given
the ranking of the opposition. It's as poor as I've been involved with.
Words "Disappointing doesn't put into words how I feel. It was
unbelievably poor. We were down seven of the original squad but I felt
sure we had players who could step in and perform better than that.
"There were very few players who came out of it with any credibility,
which is difficult to understand. It was a poor performance and I
don't know where it came from.
"Séamus Conneely, Lanre Oyebanjo and Conor Clifford were the few
players to come out with credit.
"I'll look at the DVD and see where it went wrong. It would do the
players good to look at it too because it was a horror show. It's a
team game but they have to look at themselves."
Ireland could have stolen the lead in the 23rd minute when Oyebanjo
fired in a right-wing cross that Cillian Sheridan (below) connected
with but he headed wide. Mkhitaryan grabbed the opener on the
half-hour. Hovhannes Goharyan fed him from the left and the striker
waltzed through the Irish defence before slotting past keeper Shane
Redmond.
Redmond made an impressive double-stop to deny Mkhitaryan, after a
slip by Cian Hughton, and then Karlen Lazarian from the rebound.
Things might have been different had James Collins not fired over in
the dying seconds of the half.
Callum Morris came to his keeper's aid five minutes into the second
half when he cleared off the line after Edgar Malakyan slipped his
shot under Redmond's body.
Metalurg Donetsk striker Mkhitaryan made it 2-0 in the 61st minute
after playing a clever one-two with Malakyan to fire past Redmond.
Sheridan grabbed a lifeline when he rose above Edvard Hovhannisyan
to score from a Conneely cross.
But hopes of a comeback did not last long as BATE Borisov striker
Goharyan struck to the top corner.
Mkhitaryan made it 4-1 from the spot after Malakyan was taken down
by Oyebanjo in the 81st minute. Bohemians striker Paddy Madden had
an injury-time chance but shot over with just the keeper to beat.
ARMENIA: Hovhannisyan; Yedigaryan (Khachatryan 73), Arakelyan,
Yuspashyan, Hayrapetyan, Manoyan, Voskanyan (Ghazaryan 76), Lazarian,
Malakyan, Goharyan (Badalyan 90), Mkhitaryan.
IRELAND: Redmond; Oyebanjo, Morris, Dennehy, Hughton, Gleeson,
Conneely, Carey (Clifford 46), O'Shea, Collins (Madden 66), Sheridan.
The Sun
November 18, 2009 Wednesday
England
DON GIVENS' Ireland side were torn apart in Armenia yesterday in what
the Under-21 boss called 'a horror show'.
Winless in six games, Ireland are bottom of Group Two of their UEFA
Championships qualifying group.
The Armenians went into the tie having just picked up their first
point at home to Estonia.
But they were comfortable winners, with striker Henrikh Mkhitaryan
bagging a hat-trick.
Givens can point to the absence of experienced players such as Owen
Garvan, Séamus Coleman and James McCarthy, but he acknowledged the
display was woefully inept.
He said: "It was by far the worst performance I can remember given
the ranking of the opposition. It's as poor as I've been involved with.
Words "Disappointing doesn't put into words how I feel. It was
unbelievably poor. We were down seven of the original squad but I felt
sure we had players who could step in and perform better than that.
"There were very few players who came out of it with any credibility,
which is difficult to understand. It was a poor performance and I
don't know where it came from.
"Séamus Conneely, Lanre Oyebanjo and Conor Clifford were the few
players to come out with credit.
"I'll look at the DVD and see where it went wrong. It would do the
players good to look at it too because it was a horror show. It's a
team game but they have to look at themselves."
Ireland could have stolen the lead in the 23rd minute when Oyebanjo
fired in a right-wing cross that Cillian Sheridan (below) connected
with but he headed wide. Mkhitaryan grabbed the opener on the
half-hour. Hovhannes Goharyan fed him from the left and the striker
waltzed through the Irish defence before slotting past keeper Shane
Redmond.
Redmond made an impressive double-stop to deny Mkhitaryan, after a
slip by Cian Hughton, and then Karlen Lazarian from the rebound.
Things might have been different had James Collins not fired over in
the dying seconds of the half.
Callum Morris came to his keeper's aid five minutes into the second
half when he cleared off the line after Edgar Malakyan slipped his
shot under Redmond's body.
Metalurg Donetsk striker Mkhitaryan made it 2-0 in the 61st minute
after playing a clever one-two with Malakyan to fire past Redmond.
Sheridan grabbed a lifeline when he rose above Edvard Hovhannisyan
to score from a Conneely cross.
But hopes of a comeback did not last long as BATE Borisov striker
Goharyan struck to the top corner.
Mkhitaryan made it 4-1 from the spot after Malakyan was taken down
by Oyebanjo in the 81st minute. Bohemians striker Paddy Madden had
an injury-time chance but shot over with just the keeper to beat.
ARMENIA: Hovhannisyan; Yedigaryan (Khachatryan 73), Arakelyan,
Yuspashyan, Hayrapetyan, Manoyan, Voskanyan (Ghazaryan 76), Lazarian,
Malakyan, Goharyan (Badalyan 90), Mkhitaryan.
IRELAND: Redmond; Oyebanjo, Morris, Dennehy, Hughton, Gleeson,
Conneely, Carey (Clifford 46), O'Shea, Collins (Madden 66), Sheridan.