Soccer:Steve Staunton will remain under heavy pressure unless he strings together a few results, writes Emmet Malone.
He was presumably preoccupied with his own problems at the time, but if Steve Staunton glanced in the direction of the local media as he entered the post-match press conference in Nicosia's GSP stadium back in October, the sight of the chastened Cypriot hacks might well have sustained him through the dark days that followed.
The Republic had just suffered a 5-2 reversal, their worst ever defeat, and Staunton, along with coach Kevin MacDonald, was discussing what had just transpired with journalists, many of whom reckoned that, after just five games in charge, he should resign or be sacked. Before the somewhat terse exchange could begin, though, the locals had to wrap up their own session.
At the top table, Angelos Anastasiadis gave little indication of the pleasure he must have been experiencing as he dealt with one rather awkward question after another. Around the room, though, there was no mistaking the agony being endured by reporters who, just weeks earlier, had almost universally clamoured for his dismissal in the wake of a 6-1 defeat in Slovakia.
As he reflects on a difficult first year in charge of the national team and contemplates his second, Staunton is entitled to draw some solace both from the speed at which the fortunes of a team at this level can change and the discomfort that can be caused to critical sections of the media by the turnabout.
Whether the Louthman can inspire such a reversal in Ireland's fortunes remains, however, very much open to question even after the high point of his tenure so far, the spirited 1-1 draw against the Czech Republic a few days after their return from that mauling in the Mediterranean.
Having famously started 2006 as the reserve team coach at Walsall, Staunton came to the job unproven, the benefactor, one presumes, of the lack of options available to the FAI chief executive, John Delaney, as he weighed up ways of delivering on his commitment to replace Brian Kerr with a "top class" manager.
Delaney has recently resolved any doubts regarding his own future by quietly signing a new six-year contract with the association. Few would wager heavily at this stage on his appointee making it to the end of his own four-year term.
In the circumstances, to be fair, Staunton has had to do a great deal of learning on the job, and between injuries to players and the illness suffered by his assistant, Bobby Robson, he has not had much by way of beginner's luck. Still, he has certainly made some significant mistakes along the way.
Leaving Lee Carsley in England when the team travelled to Cyprus, starting a manifestly unfit Andy O'Brien out there and then clumsily dumping Paddy Kenny after the defeat are all decisions that suggested lapses of judgement.
In Cyprus, he could at least justifiably claim to have been incapable - albeit because of a ridiculous sending-off a month earlier in the 1-0 defeat in Stuttgart - of changing things while his side's humiliation was in progress.
When the Dutch came to Dublin and ran riot in August, however, it was impossible to avoid the conclusion that his lack of managerial experience rendered him just as helpless as he stood motionless, watching from the sidelines as Ireland suffered their worst home defeat in 40 years.
The 4-0 drubbing made it two losses out of three, a particularly poor return given that Staunton had kicked off his management career with a generally impressive 3-0 win over Sweden at Lansdowne Road.
Had the game away to Germany gone as badly as seemed likely at that point, the slide might have proven irreversible for the former Liverpool and Aston Villa player, but while a game ultimately decided in favour of the home side by a solitary second-half Lukas Podolski strike wasn't nearly as impressive as Staunton's supporters would have us believe, neither was it the disaster many expected.
Cyprus, on the other hand, was much worse than anyone could have anticipated, most of the senior players letting themselves down. But against the Czechs Staunton's key selection decisions all paid off, Wayne Henderson, Stephen Kelly and particularly Paul McShane emerging from the game with great credit.
Kevin Doyle - another player handed his international debut by Staunton - subsequently rounded off what has been an outstanding year for him with one of Ireland's five goals against San Marino, a game in which Robbie Keane scored his first international hat-trick. The team performance may not have been that great, but the result did ensure that 2006 finished on something of a high.
Ireland now start 2007 with the return fixture, after which they take on Wales in the first of the team's Croke Park games. Two wins would further steady the ship before matters become a bit more challenging with the visit of Slovakia, four days after the Welsh.
As he looks forward to the spring, Staunton's morale will be buoyed by the progress shown by several of the squad's younger players.
And the resources available to him are unlikely to become as stretched again as they were when a string of injuries befell squad members over the autumn.
His side's already slender hopes of qualifying from what is a tough group more or less evaporated in the heat of Nicosia, but to achieve even the much more modest aim now of salvaging pride, justifying Ireland's fourth seeding and garnering enough points to ensure it does not get any worse, Staunton must, among other things, master the art of getting much more from the team's more experienced and most gifted players.
Nine points from the next three qualifiers and the question marks that hang over the new manager's future would start to recede. Anything much less than that, though, and there would be renewed pressure for change.
With Anastasiadis and his Cypriot persecutors in mind, Staunton will certainly start the new year hoping he can answer his critics. The funny thing is, most of his critics hope so too - though not, as yet, with any great confidence.
Republic of Ireland in 2006
March 1stIreland 3 Sweden 0 ... Lansdowne Road
May 24th Ireland 0 Chile 1 ... Lansdowne Road
August 16thIreland 0 Netherlands 4 ... Lansdowne Road
September 2ndGermany 1 Ireland 0 ... Stuttgart
October 7thCyprus 5 Ireland 2 ... Nicosia
October 11thIreland 1 Czech Republic 1 ... Lansdowne Road
November 15thIreland 5 San Marino 0 ... Lansdowne Road
