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late drama
last gasp Stephen Kenny on Troy Parrott and Ireland's late, late show at the Aviva
Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny, left, and coach Keith Andrews celebrate their side's winning goal, scored by Troy Parrott. Photo by Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile
Stephen Kenny hailed the attitude of Troy Parrott and the rest of his Ireland squad for their ability to dig out a win over Lithuania with yet another late, late show.
And the Ireland boss believes that the "persistence" shown by his players to get so many late goals will stand to them in the Nations League tests to come in the summer, the win secured thanks to a 96th minute goal from Parrott. Kenny said he admired the 20-year-old's attitude as he shrugged off the disappointment of not starting the game to deliver.
"To be fair to the players, they have that ability to get late goals, is a real quality in a team, they scored late goals against Azeerb, Serbia, Luxembourg, Belgium and again here, the characteristics of a team that's important, you can't underestimate the value of persistence, it's a quality and it speaks of the humility of the group, to keep going," Kenny said.
"We left it very late but it was a brilliant goal from Troy. He hid his disappointment and channeled it in the way you'd want him to. It would be easy for him to be displeased at not starting, having a shot tipped over, he showed he is a technically exceptional player, the technique he showed. But also to do it not when you are 2-0 up but to do it in the 97th minute when it's 0-0, that was great.
"The values in the team were good, I was happy with that. Our front three were not as cohesive as we;d have liked but they still worked hard. It was Will Keane's first start and he will learn a lot from that. He is better than he showed here and he will get better for that, it's only natural to be nervous on your first start. We asked of him tactically more than he would play at club level, he is a good player
Kenny rued the fact that four goals were disallowed for offside before Parrott's winner but he was pleased to see a revival late on, after a disappointing first half.
"Some things worked, some didn't, we learned a good deal from the game, good points and points we need to improve on," he said.
"I have never been involved in a game with four goals disallowed, to celebrate and then the flag goes up and you can't believe it, frustration can get the better of you and it didn't, that was important," he added.
"Our build up, we needed to inject tempo into our build-up, our crossing in the final third, our reluctance to cross the ball, we never really worked a pass into our front three, we needed to pas it into four front three It's easy on paper, a low block like that, they are a big team, they were dealing with crosses well. If Chieo's goal goes in early on, like Qatar here, they have to come at you and you can exploit that."
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