Kerr defends weary Ireland
Brian Kerr refused to criticise his Republic of Ireland team after they slumped to their heaviest defeat in nine years.
Ireland lost the opening fixture in the Unity Cup 3-0 to Nigeria at The Valley, their worst result since a 3-0 defeat by Portugal in 1995.
However, Kerr excused his players for a disappointing performance because half of the team had played in Thursday night’s 1-0 win over Romania at Lansdowne Road.
“It was not an ideal situation playing on Thursday at 7.30pm and then today at 3.00pm,” said Kerr. “The players gave so much on Thursday to try and win the match against Romania, who were a very good team.
“We started with six of the players who played on Thursday and it was hard going for them. You could see from the start that they didn’t have the zest, and I think that is understandable in the circumstances – they had nothing in their legs.
“I wasn’t exactly jumping up and down at the prospect of playing on Thursday night and then again today, but there was no suitable alternative. We could have played this game on Monday instead, but then we’d have been playing Monday, Wednesday and Saturday of next week, which would have been no better.”
Paris St Germain striker Bartholomew Ogbeche opened the scoring after 36 minutes with a fierce low drive from 20 yards which went in off a post after Mark Kinsella lost possession.
Kerr’s unbeaten record in friendlies was over just four minutes after the restart when Obafemi Martins, the Inter Milan striker, ran unchallenged from just past halfway before skipping inside Kenny Cunningham on the edge of the box and poking a smart low shot inside Nicky Colgan’s left post.
Ireland’s embarrassment increased when they gifted Nigeria another soft goal after 69 minutes. Cunningham hit a strong back pass without realising how close the goalkeeper was to him near the edge of his box, and it was almost impossible for Colgan to control the ball. It bounced off his body and fell into the path of Ogbeche who tapped it into the empty net.
Ireland will be hoping to bounce back when they conclude their programme in this tournament with a match against Jamaica on Wednesday night, and Kerr found one positive from today.
He added: “The positive I can take from it is that we had lots of players playing who have not played much international football. In the second half we had six on the field who had not started an international match previously.
“We are really digging into the squad now and have used 19 players in the two matches, but that is what these games are there for.”
