Failure to subdue clever Maloney and Naismith proves costly for Ireland

The day before the match, Scotland manager Gordon Strachan had promised Celtic Park would become Scotland Park for the night. For the first few minutes of the match last night, the Irish supporters were making all the noise, but by the end Ireland's unbeaten start to the European qualifiers had been swept away in a surging tide of Scottish passion.

“In pure football terms, it wasn’t that great,” Strachan said. “But as a spectacle of two groups of players not wanting to give an inch, it was mesmerising. They wanted to run faster, jump higher than each other, tackle harder . . . it was like one of them big heavyweight boxing matches.”

Inside the first 20 seconds Grant Hanley had signalled Scotland’s intent by crashing through Jon Walters from behind as a long ball dropped in the Scotland half. Walters took a while to get up from that one, and the tone for the game was set.

The free-kick gave the crowd the opportunity to have their first go at Aiden McGeady, as he stood over the dead ball with James McClean. As expected, the Scots diligently booed McGeady, who drifted to the periphery of the game as the first half wore on. “I think, for the form he has shown in recent times for us, I think he had a frustrating time tonight,” O’Neill later conceded. One misplaced five-yard pass towards Seamus Coleman rolled out of play, and a joyous chorus of “Aiden McGeady is a w****r” rolled around Parkhead. The Irish supporters sang in support of McGeady and he clapped in acknowledgement each time, provoking more boos from the home fans.

Minding his manners

If that was largely good clean fun, some of the stuff that was happening on the field was filthy. There were six bookings but there could have been many more. An early booking for Jeff Hendrick forced him to spend most of the match minding his manners, which was a serious setback in this sort of game. In the end Scotland dominated the physical stakes, winning nearly twice as many tackles as

Ireland

, and two out of every three aerial challenges.

But the thing that really made the difference was that Scotland had, in Naismith and Maloney, two crafty attackers who moved the ball quickly and dangerously in the final third. Ireland’s attacking play lacked any such organising principle.

It also lacked the familiar figure of Robbie Keane, who was named as substitute for a competitive international for the first time in 13 years. "Robbie accepted it because we were playing away from home and we wanted to try and stretch them. Shane Long can do that," O'Neill said. In the end, Ireland's muscular front two of Long and Jon Walters competed hard but failed to create a single real chance. Ireland's play going forward felt ad hoc – they were hoping McGeady would beat his man and open something up, or that Long or Walters would win a flick-on or unexpectedly wrestle a defender into submission.

Bouncing ball

The forwards were playing at the limits of their physical capacity, striving to control an awkwardly bouncing ball while a defender jumped on their back. Naismith or Maloney were getting the ball in much better positions – sometimes even as they moved towards the opponent’s goal. When they had possession Scotland always looked as though they might be able to create something.

Their best spell of the game had been the 15 minutes before half-time, when they created a stream of half-chances against an increasingly harried-looking Irish defence. Ireland made it to half-time with relief and the Scots lost their rhythm, with Ireland successfully taking some of the sting out of the game.

A few minutes into the second half, Keane went to warm up and the Irish crowd sang his name. O'Neill was unmoved and when he made his first move in the 68th minute, he turned to Robbie Brady and Stephen Quinn, with Keane forced to look on. Brady's first involvement was a positive run that took him through the Scottish defence to win a corner. O'Neill punched the air in approval.

The charged atmosphere on the field was reflected in the behaviour on the sidelines and at one point the referee came over to lecture Roy Keane, whose complaints about one of his decisions had been a little too insistent. Keane sarcastically saluted the referee as he walked off. At that point, Ireland were looking dangerous and even the booing of McGeady had lost a bit of its initial pep. When Scotland’s goal arrived a few minutes later, it came as something of a surprise.

Barrage of balls

Having stood up to a barrage of balls into the box, Ireland’s defence was ultimately undone by the quick thinking and precision of Maloney, who worked infield from a quickly taken short corner, exchanged passes with Scott Brown, spotted a gap at David Forde’s far post and curled the ball through a crowded penalty area and into the net.

O’Neill responded by sending on Keane but he could not influence the game, managing only four touches.

Ireland came close in injury time when Hanley inadvertently headed the ball against his own bar, but the Scotland Park crowd’s roar of victory at the final whistle already felt inevitable.

They knew their team had deserved it.