“Most of the time I think you get what you deserve.”
Not quite The Rolling Stones line but Gordon Strachan proved correct on this evening of single Magpie sightings for Irish football.
This 1-1 draw makes it highly likely that failure to qualify for France 2016 will only be confirmed when the thousandth cut is administered.
The usual Irish way. Unless fate intervenes, a slow death will be prolonged by a journey to Faro in Portugal to take on Gibraltar and a hosting of Georgia before Germany, presumably, will crush those last remaining vestiges of hope in Dublin on October 8th.
Or, if they somehow survive that, three days later they must soldier onto Warsaw where the lethal injection should be administered.
In the meantime there comes a long summer of regret. Strachan’s assertion can hardly be challenged, even if Martin O’Neill was adamant Steven Naismith refereed this match as much as the barking Italian official.
Strachan labelled Nicola Rizzoli “terrific.”
“I’m not surprised Gordon thought that, not surprised at all,” said O’Neill. “Naismith referred the game on his own for most of it.”
A Scottish reporter smelled the sour grapes and dived in: ‘Naismith refereed the game, what do you mean Martin?’
“Don’t worry.”
“Next question?” said the FAI’s newly autonomous communications department.
O’Neill added: “I take responsibility.”
The Derryman also refused to let the depressing look of Group D break his resolve.
“We are still well in the group and this is not just fighting bravado talk, we are still well in the group. The two games in September, if we can win those two games away in Gibraltar and home to Georgia, and see where that leads us into the Germany game.”
But most of the time you get what you deserve. Ireland were the best they have been since O’Neill took over as manager but only in the opening 45 minutes. Every surprising selection – Daryl Murphy and Jeff Hendrick – clearly paid off until a disastrous 58 seconds after the break saw O’Neill’s Ireland fall fast asleep.
“Okay. I thought we were very dominant in the first half and deserved to be in front. Absolutely fallen asleep for the goal, even though it’s going miles wide, after half-time but we should have closed it down on three different occasions. It’s hit John (O’Shea) and gone into the net when it would have gone wide.
“Scotland got a big lift from that. Their best spell was for 10 minutes after that. But we pulled ourselves round and I thought we were going to win it. We didn’t.
“Didn’t want half-time to come. I thought Scotland were in disarray at the time and we were in the control of the game.”
Strachan leaves with a point he felt his team deserved for their resilience, strength and defensive organisation after Shaun Maloney’s curling shot was deflected past a flat-footed Shay Given.
“All I know is a very good player got us a wonderful goal again,” said the Scotland manager. “For all the systems that we talk about a very good player just got us the point.”
And it was Maloney, Strachan noted, who tracked back to spoil James McClean’s header for glory off Robbie Brady’s corner.
“And a very good player, 10 minutes from the end, was back in the right back position heading the ball away from McClean.”
Maloney, the hero on that November night in Glasgow, the hero in Dublin as well.
“He’s the most conscientious football player I’ve ever come across. He deserves everything he gets.”
