“Football is beginning to become unpalatable for us Irelanders”. That was Mary Hannigan’s verdict on a grim night in Dublin. First the under-21s somehow only came away with a 2-2 draw from a dominant display against Latvia in Tallaght, before we were served a Greek tragedy at the Aviva.
Greece have now beaten Ireland three times in 15 months, with Fotis Ioannidis bursting Heimir Hallgrímsson’s balloon just after half-time. Gavin Cummiskey writes: “those familiar with this generation saw it happening in slow motion. From 2021 to 2023, nine goals were conceded from long-range shots.” Malachy Clerkin felt Jayson Molumby was probably the pick of the bunch for Ireland on a night when few really impressed.
Hallgrímsson was patrolling the technical area for much of the evening in contrast to Saturday’s match against England. As Ken Early put it: “Nobody could doubt who the manager was now.” Chiedozie Ogbene’s wonderful effort that was ruled out for offside could have been the reward Ireland’s relatively bright first half needed but as Ken writes “one moment of slackness undid 45 minutes of good work”. By the end “the crowd were in no mood to hear the announcer’s chirpy update that Smallbone was man of the match, and booed. The boos at the final whistle were louder.”
The manager lamented the team’s lack of confidence and said “the jersey feels too heavy for some players, and they cannot play like they do for their clubs.” He’ll have to find a way to lighten the load in the coming months.
In the domestic game, Dundalk’s woes are deepening with supporters now setting up a GoFundMe page looking to raise €100,000 to keep the club afloat until the end of the season. The Dundalk squad and staff are waiting for last week’s wages following confirmation from US-based owner Brian Ainscough that he is seeking investment to keep the club going between now and the end of the season. Ainscough completed a 100 per cent takeover last November, having cuts ties with Kerry FC where he was chief executive, but his failure to secure external investment has put the 14-time League of Ireland champions in “financial difficulties.”
In GAA, Limerick’s All-Ireland winning hurling management team of John Kiely and coach Paul Kinnerk have been appointed for a further two years and Niall Ó Ceallacháin has been named the new Dublin senior hurling manager in succession to Micheál Donoghue. In his column this morning, Sean Moran asks is there a sport in the world whose spectators and pundit class are so out of love with its reality as Gaelic football?
Elsewhere, new recruit RG Snyman and Jamison Gibson-Park have returned to fitness for Leinster while Leo Cullen spoke ahead of the new season about the fine margins that have denied them trophies in the last three seasons.
Yesterday, Shane Lowry ended his partnership with construction firm Kingspan in the wake of the official report into the Grenfell fire. Survivors’ group Grenfell United, who first urged the golfer to cut ties with the Irish construction firm three years ago, welcomed the decision. Lowry will be playing at the Irish Open at Royal County Down this week. David Gorman has all you need to know about the tournament which begins tomorrow morning. The course offers “one of the most famous and unique links challenges of them all”.
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