IRELAND VS WALES - October 11th

I don't think many posters have an issue with the style of play, I think most of them have an issue with Kenny and his suitability for the job. Some of them are still pining for Mick, to come back for the third time to complete his "unfinished business". I notice that the post match inquest on TV after the  Slovakia game wasn't the usual Oscar speeches about ten year plans, but whether Kenny is up to it or not, because we lost a penalty shoot out. 

You'll get a few hoofball heads like Roddy Collins going ballistic over not getting 3 points, but I think most of us recognise that we've qualified for 2 tournaments in 20 years, and the traditional "put em under pressure" tactics we've revelled in for the past 35 years no longer work, and we need to rebuild the team and how the team plays. That was never going to be Mick, it's not going to be the likes of Allardyce either. It needs someone with the time and the will and the energy to do a radical reform of the side and it needs the fans to have the patience to put up with it, and be prepared to write off a campaign or two, in order to be competitive again. It's not about the next campaign, it's about where we want to be in 4-6-10 years time. Every country has to do it at some point, if they want to be successful. 

The game was everything I expected it to be. It was never going to be a classic. They had no interest in scoring and we can't score at all. Then McClean launched into one of his traditional challenges and became the first player to be dismissed at home since 2011. He can go back to Stoke and fight his one man war against poppy wearing for the next month. 

In his absence we're off to Finland, to face a country whose level of progress and achievement, are the model we have to look to during the long rebuilding phase to come. 

Good luck to him I say . 

Nonsense! He was only out to earn a crust.

You might be touching on a false equivalency there as I think Roy Keane is defended by more balloon heads than the ones defending Mick   Mick had total commitment both as a player and a manager to our national side. Keane simply didn't have that commitment irrespective of what your views of who was right or wrong about Saipan or anything else. There is justifiably more disdain among Irish supporters generally speaking  towards Keane rather than Mick when it comes to our national side imo. (Mick's current role commentating on the Ireland games isn't doing him much favours mind )

Your second point about a player not doing it on the pitch anymore and the mob taking its pound of flesh is moot. This would apply in any case with any fanbase.  Irish fans are no more fickle than any other set of fans in that regard. 

Roy Keane dragged ireland to a World Cup. That’s the bottom line.