By yesterday afternoon it seemed as though Brian Kerr and Fran Rooney, the chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, had as much enthusiasm for the Unity Cup as London's Irish population evidently did last Saturday afternoon.
That a crowd of only 7,438 turned up to watch the 3-0 defeat by Nigeria still, clearly, irritated both men, with the state of the pitch adding to Kerr's annoyance.
While Charlton Athletic's enterprise has yielded them £70,000 in the fortnight since the season ended, after renting out their pitch for 29 corporate games, the playing surface for the Unity Cup has left Kerr - and his Jamaican counterpart Carl Brown - distinctly unimpressed.
"The pitch is dire," said the Irish manager. "Apart from the 29 matches there was even a Gaelic match on it the other day before we played Nigeria.
"You come from Lansdowne Road with 43,000 people on a pitch that was in pristine condition to this. We were building the players up, for good games against good opposition and in front of big crowds. That wasn't what we got on Saturday. It's very frustrating to walk out on the pitch and see what it's like."
"Somebody showed a lack of respect for international football by not having the pitch in good nick. I was here near the end of the season and it was in great nick. Mattie Holland told me that they thought it was the best it ever was for the end of the season."
"It was de-motivating for the players, it's hard for them to lift themselves especially after Thursday night (against Romania at Lansdowne Road) where there was a great atmosphere.
While expressing his disappointment in Saturday's attendance and suggesting, pointedly, that the organisers could have done a whole lot better, Rooney was, however, quick to dispel suggestions that the whole exercise could prove to be a loss-making one for the FAI.
"It was disappointing to get such a low crowd in London but the organisers put on this tournament in the past and it went very well," he said.
"A lot of organisation goes into getting an international fixture right and maybe the organisers left too much to chance this time. Tickets, for example, were only made available to us last week, that should have been done a lot earlier."
He did confirm, though, that the FAI's fee of €260,000 was paid in advance, with two payments of €130,000 made on May 1st and 24th. When somewhat nervously asked if the cheques might be of the bouncing variety he guaranteed that they weren't, the money is in the account.
It will hardly come as any consolation but Jamaica, Ireland's opponents at the Valley tomorrow evening, have had their own share of problems since gathering for a 10-day training camp in London in preparation for World Cup qualifiers against Haiti on June 12th and 20th.
An exasperated Brown walked out of training last week when his players interrupted the session with complaints about the 'unsavoury' food provided by their hotel. All was well by the next day, but only after the coach had publicly criticised his players.
If he doubted their motivation for the Unity Cup, it's a quality he suspected was also lacking in Ireland's display against Nigeria. "Ireland were not highly motivated," he said, "they didn't seem to be bothered about winning. I'm not sure what importance they have placed on this tournament, they are missing many of their top players. Maybe they just suffered a hangover from beating Romania - but either way, I expect them to be stronger against us, they won't want two results and performances like that in a row."
After Nigeria's 2-0 victory over Jamaica yesterday - when the organisers were somewhat cheered by an attendance of 14,500 on the Bank Holiday Monday, one that was mainly made up of Jamaicans - Brown's team will be competing for the less than coveted spot of Unity Cup runners-up against Ireland.
It will be an Irish team without Jason McAteer and David Connolly, neither of whom was able to join up with the squad yesterday, both ruled out with groin injuries (they will also miss Saturday's friendly against Holland).
John O'Shea has, however, rejoined the dwindling group, which lost Liam Miller at the weekend, after being allowed miss the Nigeria game to allow time for an ankle injury to heal. Kerr has decided against calling in any replacements for the Jamaica game but may consider late call-ups for the trip to Amsterdam.
Four of the squad who played no part in the games against Romania and Jamaica - Michael Doyle (Coventry City), Aiden McGeady (Celtic), Paddy Kenny (Sheffield United) and John Thompson (Nottingham Forest) - will feature against Jamaica, with Doyle and McGeady due to make their senior Irish debuts.
Recent caps Martin Rowlands (QPR), Jonathan Douglas (Blackburn Rovers) and Clive Clarke (Stoke City) are also likely to be used as Kerr attempts to "freshen things up" in the aftermath of the Nigeria display.
