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Irish Independent
Oct 8 2011
O'Shea wary of looming Armenian threat
By David Kelly
Saturday October 08 2011
John O'Shea bounds for the bus. Seemingly as eager as the rest of us
to banish the previous hours into a far, distant place in the memory
bank.
Three points. Move on. Tuesday will define this group; not this
evening of torpor.
"We found out the Russian result as well and we just wanted to get the
three points and get out of town," he says. "We've played on some bad
pitches as kids but you think when you get to international level that
it might be better.
"You have to get on with it. Be professional. It would have been nice
to score a few more goals, it would have been a lot nicer. All roads
lead to Tuesday night against a team who are scoring lots of goals at
the moment. It will be a good test for us."
Ireland declared at 2-0 after 20 minutes and submitted to a tame
stalemate thereafter.
"The manager wasn't happy at half-time, he didn't want us to
underestimate them," reports O'Shea. "We did put them under a lot of
pressure in the first 20 minutes but we fell away a bit after that and
the manager wasn't happy with that. The second-half was disappointing,
not scoring. We defended comfortably enough and Shay Given handled
anything he had to deal with."
The dangerous Armenians lurk with more menacing intent.
"You go into a game against Armenia thinking about a draw... they've
scored a lot of goals so we're going to have to be on our guard at the
back. Having Richard Dunne back will be a bonus.
"But obviously we lose Stephen Ward, which is disappointing. I think
he was fouled, at least he says so. He didn't dive over like a swan.
But we have the players. You see Aiden McGeady has become a
world-class player. We need to give him the ball because he's
destroying teams for us at the moment.
"We would have taken this position at the start of the group but then
you see the games against Slovakia when we could have really nicked a
win in both of those, especially away from home when we deserved it a
lot more."
Kevin Doyle agreed. "We always had that hope that maybe we could go on
and win the group. We have been in the play-offs before and we know
what it's like.
"Armenia will be full of confidence. We knew when we won 1-0 that it
was a very difficult game and since then they have picked up some big
results. They won't be fearing us."
"We won't be going for a draw," added Shane Long. "We know exactly how
good Armenia are. They were a great side in the first game and we knew
a 1-0 win away from home was going to be a big result. Hopefully we
can back that up with a home win to get us to the play-offs."
- David Kelly
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/oshea-wary-of-looming-armenian-threat-2900104.html
From: A. Papazian
Oct 8 2011
O'Shea wary of looming Armenian threat
By David Kelly
Saturday October 08 2011
John O'Shea bounds for the bus. Seemingly as eager as the rest of us
to banish the previous hours into a far, distant place in the memory
bank.
Three points. Move on. Tuesday will define this group; not this
evening of torpor.
"We found out the Russian result as well and we just wanted to get the
three points and get out of town," he says. "We've played on some bad
pitches as kids but you think when you get to international level that
it might be better.
"You have to get on with it. Be professional. It would have been nice
to score a few more goals, it would have been a lot nicer. All roads
lead to Tuesday night against a team who are scoring lots of goals at
the moment. It will be a good test for us."
Ireland declared at 2-0 after 20 minutes and submitted to a tame
stalemate thereafter.
"The manager wasn't happy at half-time, he didn't want us to
underestimate them," reports O'Shea. "We did put them under a lot of
pressure in the first 20 minutes but we fell away a bit after that and
the manager wasn't happy with that. The second-half was disappointing,
not scoring. We defended comfortably enough and Shay Given handled
anything he had to deal with."
The dangerous Armenians lurk with more menacing intent.
"You go into a game against Armenia thinking about a draw... they've
scored a lot of goals so we're going to have to be on our guard at the
back. Having Richard Dunne back will be a bonus.
"But obviously we lose Stephen Ward, which is disappointing. I think
he was fouled, at least he says so. He didn't dive over like a swan.
But we have the players. You see Aiden McGeady has become a
world-class player. We need to give him the ball because he's
destroying teams for us at the moment.
"We would have taken this position at the start of the group but then
you see the games against Slovakia when we could have really nicked a
win in both of those, especially away from home when we deserved it a
lot more."
Kevin Doyle agreed. "We always had that hope that maybe we could go on
and win the group. We have been in the play-offs before and we know
what it's like.
"Armenia will be full of confidence. We knew when we won 1-0 that it
was a very difficult game and since then they have picked up some big
results. They won't be fearing us."
"We won't be going for a draw," added Shane Long. "We know exactly how
good Armenia are. They were a great side in the first game and we knew
a 1-0 win away from home was going to be a big result. Hopefully we
can back that up with a home win to get us to the play-offs."
- David Kelly
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/oshea-wary-of-looming-armenian-threat-2900104.html
From: A. Papazian