Doyle’s On The Boil As Fahey’s First Produces Maximum Start

This win was forged in the industrial midlands of England as Wolves past & present combined to feast on the Armenian defence after nibbling away for 75 minutes the outstanding Kevin Doyle combined with Record Goalscorer & skipper Robbie Keane to set up Birmingham striker Keith Fahey for his début strike minutes after entering the fray.

Armenia 0-1 Republic Of Ireland (Fahey, 76)

On a humid night at the Stadium of The Republic in Yerevan the hosts proved to be a typical Eastern European side with plenty of steel, studs raised kicking lumps out of the visitors with the occasional counter attack to give the Irish pause for thoughts of an easy assignment.

In a first half that Ireland utterly dominated Robbie Keane proved to be particularly profligate as he wasted several good chances engineered by the ubiquitous Doyle & Liam Lawrence. The easiest of those chances came after 8 minutes when Keane’s box rustiness not playing for Spurs evidenced early as he snatched a snapshot that at his best he would have buried. Keane also had two penalty appeals, one spurious & one stonewall – neither were given. The captain also had the ball in the net but it was disallowed for a tight offside decision. Doyle had his best match for Ireland as he consistently lead the line & also proved to be magnificent defensively. The Irish defence were magnificent with Richard Dunne once again proving that he is one of the best stoppers in World football & Kevin Kilbane John O’Shea proved pivotal to keeping the pressure on Armenia.

Bob "The Voice" McKenzie Twitter: @BobTheVoice About: