Stephen Kenny: ‘We’ve got to turn performances into results’

Stephen Kenny ahead of kick off in the Aviva

Stephen Kenny ahead of kick off in the Aviva Credit: Ben Whitley (ETPhotos)

Sean O’Connor reports from the Aviva Stadium

Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny reckoned his team did enough to deserve the win on Saturday but the 1-1 draw versus Azerbaijan still leaves the Boys in Green joint bottom of Group A, and without a win in 15 competitive games.

After starting the game excellently, with early chances from Man of the Match Adam Idah, Matt Doherty and skipper Seamus Coleman, Ireland lost their way midway through the half, and lacked intensity and composure for periods.

“We started the first 15 minutes really well,” said Kenny speaking to the media after the match. 

“They had a spell of possession which was always likely. They didn’t really create anything, just the one chance on the break in the second half.”

Asked about Emin Makhmudov’s goal on the stroke of half-time, Kenny admitted that it was a sucker punch for his side. Coleman and Doherty should have done better to close down the midfielder sooner, who had nine seconds on the ball unchallenged before his shot.

“To concede a goal in the 45th minute, it’s a terrible time to concede. It changes the narrative. Their goalkeeper was going down, the players were going down. It disrupts your rhythm. 

"We have seen him do that before. We should have closed him down better. It was a killer blow right on half-time”.

Kenny rejected any suggestion that his time as Ireland boss may be coming to an end and was adamant that this Irish team will reach their potential eventually. 

“We were absolutely exceptional against Portugal, we played very well against Hungary, we scored four goals at Andorra, against Qatar we played well, we had a poor game against Luxembourg but against Serbia we were excellent.



“A lot of the recent performances have been very, very good but we got to turn performances into results.

“It’s not for me to say how I am doing as manager, but we are building a team that is very exciting. Today we saw a lot of good football. We should have won; we dominated the game today.”

With 22,000 supporters returning to the Aviva stadium after a 22-month absence, Kenny praised the support, although boos could be heard as the side left the field. The FAI will also be disappointed that 3,000 tickets remained unsold.

”I didn’t take it as they were booing the team, they were just disappointed at the end that we couldn’t get the winner. I think the crowd were brilliant, they got behind the team”.

“I think they saw a team who gave everything, They created a lot of chances, we had a high number of chances. We had a lot of good play but we couldn’t get the goal we deserved”. 

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