Richard Keogh - It's my biggest honour, I've ever had in my career

"It's my biggest honour I've ever had in my career," were the words of Richard Keogh speaking after captaining the Republic of Ireland in the scoreless draw with Denmark at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night. The 32-year-old was very proud to lead out the boys in green as captain for the fourth time.

Keogh felt that the game was a tight affair, but a first clean sheet in seven games was a huge positive to take away from proceedings.

 “It was a tight game,” said the Derby County defender. “We knew what threat they posed and I think a draw was probably a fair result. We had a couple of chances and they obviously hit the post and one cleared off the line.

"All in all, for the possession they had they didn’t test Darren (Randolph) too much, and on another day, we could have nicked it, but a clean sheet is a real positive for us.”

Playing a new style of formation can weaken a side on but Keogh believes that Ireland played well defensively under the new style – using three central defenders - restricting the Danes to few opportunities.

“It’s a new formation for us. We are still learning certain aspects of it. I think it suits the personal that we’ve got in the squad and when Callum (O’Dowda) came on he done well. Shane (Long) was excellent - I thought he held up the ball given them a real problem , when we did get our moves together.

“I thought we looked a good team. When you are playing against a good side, you know you have to defend well. We go into every game trying to win it. We will go over this game and see what we can do better but I think a clean sheet is a real step in the right direction for us.”

On captaining Ireland, he is delighted that Martin O’Neill has handed him the captain's armband on recent occasions, an honour he could not have believed would happen.

“If you’d have said to me when I was a young boy, I was gonna’ captain my country I wouldn’t have believed you. So to do it four times and the manager to put that trust in me, it’s a big thing for me. I just think being an older player and maybe being a captain at Derby, the lads trust me and they like to think they can rely on me.”

With Wales visiting the Aviva on Tuesday, attention quickly turns to how Ireland will play against the Welsh with or without Gareth Bale, but Keogh feels that if the Irish supporters get behind the team on Tuesday, they can overcome this difficult test.



“We know it’s going to be another tough game. We didn’t have a great result there (in Cardiff), but I think after the Poland performance and this performance, I think there’s a lot to build on.

 “We will get back and recover now, we know we got to have another big effort on Tuesday night. They’ll be coming here to obviously try and win the game but were at home we got to make sure we make the atmosphere like it was tonight. We have got to get around them and we got to put them under pressure a little bit. I’m really looking forward to the game.”