The calls from Irish footballing fans wanting Stephen Kenny sacked are almost at deafening point, as the Boys in Green were comfortably defeated on home soil by Greece - ending Ireland's UEFA Euro 2024 qualification hopes from the conventional group method.
Two first half Greek goals killed any hope that Kenny's outfit would be able to take anything from the must win fixture, and put a dampener on the buzz created in the Irish capital following the awarding of UEFA Euro 2028 to Ireland in a joint bid with the UK.
An expert cross from Liverpool's Kostas Tsimikas landed perfectly on the head of Atlanta United striker Georgios Giakoumakis who barely had to adjust his body to fire a rocket of a bullet header past Gavin Bazunu after 20 minutes.
It was two just before the halfway stage, with Giorgos Masouras finishing off a slick counter attack from close range.
Former Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers manager Kenny's post match thoughts always bounced back to the same theme of disappointment.
“Everyone’s hugely disappointed," he admitted. "We’ve conceded two goals that were preventable, given Greece a two goal start. With 18 shots, as many - if not more than Greece had on the night - they were just more ruthless than us.”
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"Punished" by a ruthless Greece
Despite a positive start, the Boys in Green were left regretting missed early opportunities with 20 on the clock and despite the undoubted quality in Giakoumakis' header, Kenny wasn't happy with the space given to the striker who plays his club football in the MLS.
The man in the hotseat said “To concede the first goal, we just didn't mark in the box which is critical. It was a bit of a ricochet which they got a break from and it was a fine cross that was finished but we can’t be giving free headers in the box like that, and we got punished."
With Ireland only sitting four places behind their visitors in the FIFA World Rankings, this was a game that the manager had highlighted as one of getting their qualification hopes back on track however, as much as his optimism could be applauded, Ireland would have needed to win all three of their final games and have other results go their way.
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A better second half performance
In reality, the game was wrapped up as soon as that second goal hit the back of the net. Some would argue it was game over when the first goal went in given Ireland's recent form when going a goal behind, but Kenny did praise his side's second half performance.
“The players gave everything in the second half, we played well in the second half at times," the almost surprised manager exclaimed. "We created some chances, not enough. They defended their box well and our movement in the box could be better, but the players gave everything but the concession of that (second) goal hurt us.”
With an unwanted record of Kenny's five competitive wins in three years, a debate in the studios of RTÉ has been almost ever-present following defeats as to whether fans are interested in the style of play as long as it gets them to tournaments.
Shay Given even alluded to the point in the RTÉ studios post match that former manager "Steve Staunton had a better record than this guy (Stephen Kenny) and was dressed as a puppet in front of one of the national newspapers."
Once again, the performance in Dublin saw Ireland labelled as dull and flat which the manager responded to, saying: "I don’t think (the second half) was flat, I think the crowd was because we were 2-0 down and you can understand that.”
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Bringing in youth not a "vanity project"
One positive for Ireland on the tedious Friday night in the capital was Evan Ferguson's return to the team following missing the last set of fixtures through injury.
Supporters of the manager have pointed to the number of debuts handed out being a success, most lately Celtic's Liam Scales, which Kenny addressed - and downplayed - to the media.
“It wasn’t a vanity project bringing all the u21 players in, it had to be done because who are the alternatives?" Asked the Irish boss. "There was a massive gap between players who were 31, 32 and players who are 21, and a lack of talent in that age bracket so we had to (bring young players in). We’ve had to do that, we’ve had a lot of players come through: some are quality, some are injured - Obafemi, Troy Parrott, we’ve just got Evan (Ferguson) and Chiedozie (Ogbene) back. Mikey Johnson hasn’t played a minute for his club this season, but these are good players.”
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Overall campaign a disappointment
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) will meet following the conclusion of the qualifying campaign to assess the performance, so the manager's mind is clearly on their next fixture against Gibraltar, with his future still very much so in the balance.
“I’m sure (the FAI) will be disappointed (with the campaign)," he alluded to. "I’m not naïve enough to suffuse otherwise, but what we’ve got to do is, we’ve got a game on Monday, so we’ve got to prepare and just play the game on Monday.
"I’m disappointed with the campaign, we knew it was a group of death with tough games. France, Holland are really tough but we’ve given an epic performance against both and pushed them all the way but we shouldn’t be losing to Greece at home, we know that.”
