Traps Green Army Make It 2 From 2 As History Repeats Itself

Republic of Ireland 3-1 Andorra

This game was all about getting 6 points from 2 games following a lack lustre 1-0 win over Armenia on Friday but to their credit the boys in green did try to score goals.

Ireland started the game quite well and were pushing hard to get an opening goal early on, Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle and Aiden McGeady going close inside the first 10 minutes, on the 15th minute traps boys took the lead with a great goal from the oldest player in the team, Kevin Kilbane after Paul Green whipped in a lovely ball from the corner, this gave the fans something to cheer about early on.

Ireland kept pushing for a second but nothing they did seemed to work, their final touch was very poor.

Down the other end Shay Given didn’t really have a lot to do in the opening stages but did look very uncomfortable when the ball did come into his area especially on 17 minutes when he just about got a shot away and out for a corner which John O Shea dealt with quite well.

On 40 minutes the new stadium which only reached a 40,000 capacity was buzzing again, Ireland got their second after a nice 1 – 2 between man of the match Kevin Doyle and Liam Lawerance, Doyle gathered the ball outside the box and shot a screamer into the back of the net, the home side could now relax a little, or could they?

With 1 minute to go till half time Christian Martinez found himself with plenty of room and himself scored a screamer, Shay Given was never getting to that. That was the last kick of the half and Ireland needed to do a lot more in the second half if this was to be a convincing 3 points.

They somewhat did that, after some very poor play Ireland were back on the score sheet on 55 minutes and it was the captain Robbie Keane who found himself with plenty of room to score and history had repeated itself .

After the third goal Ireland sat back and didn’t try to get any more goals.

On Paper this was a good victory for the boys in green, 6 points from 2 games is a great start to the campaign but there is still plenty of work ahead for Traps young guns, it finished Ireland 3, Andorra 1.
 

Daniel "Pitchside" Pitcher Twitter: @DanFM104Sport About: Dan "Pitchside" Pitcher provides insight and commentary as the chief soccer and rugby correspondent for Sportspeak.