It was far from swashbuckling stuff in Malta but Callum Robinson’s goal proved to be enough for Stephen Kenny’s men to finish the year with a victory.
Having lost at home to Norway last Thursday, it was clear Ireland had to win in Malta – for the confidence of the group as much as anything else. And while the 1-0 win at the Ta’ Qali Stadium wasn’t quite a forgettable encounter, it would have been memorable for very different reasons had Robinson not netted in the 55th minute.
“It was important to keep a clean sheet tonight,” said Kenny. “They were two tough games in three days. The Norway game had a high level of intensity and it was a very tactical game, and it really took a lot out of the players I felt.
“But I think we learned a lot from the Norway game and they paid us a lot of respect. Tonight against Malta, no game in international football away from home is easy to win.
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“One of the things about Malta is that they have had an improved record recently, they’ve got some good results recently, so there is a little bit of a resurgence there. There is no doubt that the match itself wasn’t a classic, far from it.
“But we were pleased that we got a clean sheet and there were some good aspects to it. But we have played a lot better and lost.”
Ireland didn’t cause Malta a huge amount of problems throughout the evening and certainly the delivery and execution of set pieces was disappointing from an Ireland perspective.
“To be fair, it was a really blustery, windy night and the in-swinging corner kicks were blowing right into the goalkeeper. And their goalkeeper did well, to be fair, he caught everything.
“We changed it at half-time and went with out-swingers. The wind died a bit at half-time as well. But we weren’t successful on set-plays.”
Jamie McGrath played in the middle of the field for Ireland and while the Dundee United man admits there was frustration going in scoreless at half-time, he felt Ireland showed good composure to eventually break Malta down in the second half.
“We knew we had to be patient with it,” said McGrath.
“We didn’t create enough clear-cut chances in the first half. They’ve been in a bit of form so we knew it was going to be tough. International football is never easy, no matter who the opponent is.
“We knew at half-time we had to be patient, we couldn’t get frustrated with ourselves. We had to try to unlock the door a bit better than we had.”
