Salvaging point against Serbia likely to lift some pressure off Kenny
By Daire Walsh
IT MAY not have been the competitive win he and his team so badly crave, but the Republic of Ireland’s 1-1 draw with Serbia at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night should lift some of the pressure off Stephen Kenny’s shoulders for the time being.
It is unclear how substantive reports were of his job being on the line if they had suffered defeat, but there is no doubt that speculation would have continued to mount between now and their trip to Azerbaijan on October 9.
As it is, a share of the spoils with Serbia is seen as commendable, particularly with Dragan Stojković’s charges pushing hard for top spot in Group A.
Thanks to Sergej Milinković-Savić’s opener on the stroke of 20 minutes, Serbia looked set to join Portugal on 13 points towards the summit of the table.
Instead, a calamitous Nikola Milenković own goal leaves them two points adrift of Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portuguese compatriots.
Not for the first time in his tenure – which began on April 4 of last year – Tallaght man Kenny was in a defiant mood when he spoke to the media in advance of the Serbia game.
As well as revealing that qualifying for Euro 2024 in Germany was always his target rather than next year’s World Cup in Qatar, he also insisted it was ‘near-sighted’ to suggest his job was simply to win matches and not to worry about the development of the game from a wider perspective.
However, Kenny’s current deal as senior international boss only runs until next summer – several months before their road to a potential place at the European Championships gets underway.
It seems likely that his role will be reviewed at the end of this World Cup qualifying group and, with this in mind, the remaining three games of the term could prove pivotal.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the past few months for Kenny is the fact that encouraging displays against Serbia (both home and away) and Portugal have been surrounded by lacklustre performances at home to Luxembourg and Azerbaijan.
Even though they will face the latter duo in their own backyards over the next two months, Kenny’s troops have a chance to make amends for the points dropped against the group’s fourth and fifth seeds.
If they were able to garner the maximum of six points from these fixtures, then it might just convince some more people of Kenny’s vision for the men’s national team.