Kerr happy at halfway stage
Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr declared himself satisfied at the halfway stage of his side’s World Cup qualifying campaign despite suffering a sickening blow against Israel.
Ireland looked all set to take a crucial three points off Group Four rivals Israel in front of a sell-out 41,000 Ramat-Gan Stadium crowd in Tel Aviv.
The Republic silenced the fervent, partisan faithful after just three minutes when Birmingham striker Clinton Morrison scored the eighth international goal of his career from a seemingly impossible angle after being set up by Damien Duff.
For the following 87 minutes Ireland held on to that lead, enduring a few scares along the way, notably when Shay Given produced a truly world class save to deny former Everton midfielder Idan Tal.
But then just two seconds into the three minutes of injury time, Kerr and Ireland were denied a win when 79th-minute substitute Abas Suan struck an inch-perfect 25-yard drive, squeezing the ball through Given’s outstretched grasp and the inside of his right-hand post.
The draw, the third away from home in their campaign following those against Switzerland and France, gives Ireland a haul of nine points from their five matches.
“I am happy with that,” said Kerr. “I would have liked more points but the way we have got them has been fairly satisfactory.
“It would have been worse if we had won of those three away games and lost the other two.
“The way we have gone about it means the other teams we have played have suffered as well. They have lost points.
“Gaining the nine points the way we have, that’s the way to go about it. Anybody that runs a team will tell you that.”
Kerr countered claims that his side adopted a negative approach after taking the lead so early on.
Although they retained possession well at times, Ireland appeared reluctant to build on their advantage, and ultimately were made to pay.
“With the goal coming so late on this feels like points dropped,” added Kerr.
“Give credit to Israel because they fought to the end, but it’s so disappointing to concede so late. There’s no doubt about that. Before the game we felt a win would have been fantastic and a draw good, so this is only a good result.
“We said we would go and take the game to them and that we wouldn’t sit back and I think we showed that all the way through.
“Although we made a good start, I don’t think we sat on it by any means. In general we were in control.
“They had a couple of chances in the second half but we kept possession well and in the areas of the pitch we wanted to be in. We probably weren’t as incisive in the final third as we would have wanted to be and we had opportunities to exploit the space better, but we didn’t do that.
“Overall, I don’t think there was any sense of negativity with the way we went about things because even in the closing stages we had six or seven players in and around their penalty area.”
Kerr was at least delighted with Morrison’s early input into the game, underlining the faith he has in the 25 year old despite the fact he is fourth-choice striker at St Andrews.
“His finish was excellent,” added Kerr. “He showed great technique with the ball coming onto his left foot and into the near post the way it did.
“Goals in international football are precious and he has got three vital ones for us in this campaign so far.
“After that he worked hard, although I don’t think his sharpness was what it could be if he was playing week in and week out at his club.”
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