SOMETIMES Ireland fans and the media are accused of having Great Expectations, or in other words unrealistic ones.
Whereas the reality is that most, like Oliver Twist, just want a little bit more than they have been served up previously.
Thursday’s victory will not go down in the history books as a reference point, as the win in Scotland in 1987 and Austria in 2016 have.
They are the landmark victories on the road that Ireland have managed in the modern era.
The first was a sign of things to come under Jack Charlton, the laying down of a marker that Ireland were becoming a force to be reckoned with.
The second turned out to be the last sting of a dying wasp with Martin O’Neill‘s ageing team about to run out of road with no young talent immediately ready to take the baton.
By winning 3-0 in both Azerbaijan and Luxembourg, Stephen Kenny‘s side showed a capability of being ruthless on the road.
But, although those nations may have been stronger than they had in previous campaigns, neither is a yardstick for a team with serious aspirations of qualifying for a major tournament.
Maybe Bulgaria are not either, trading off an outdated reputation earned when they reached the semi-finals of the 1994 World Cup.
But the fact that Ireland came from behind to win – as they had done in Finland in October – suggested that, slowly but surely, it is becoming more resilient.
Remember, that the last time it had won in such a way in a competitive fixture beforehand was against Kazakhstan, way back in 2013.
Rolling with the punches against top-level opposition may still be beyond them, given how they dropped their guard and allow England pummel them after Liam Scales‘ red card in November.
But being able to deal with and overcome mishaps against less-exalted side in a better manner than an overtired toddler is one indicator of the team’s growth.
It shows that it is at least heading in the right direction if some way off its final destination.
Although Heimir Hallgrímsson did not want his players to sit back in the manner in which they did in the second half, they still managed to nullify Bulgaria’s threats fairly comfortably.
That lent an air of assurance to the performance with the all-too-familiar experience of hanging on for dear life notably absent.
Hallgrímsson said: “That is the area where we have grown the most. In our low block defence we are pretty solid, we are not open in the middle, we show them outside.
“Sometimes they did crosses, but we dealt with them. If we want to beat stronger opponents, higher-ranked opponents, we need to be really good in that area.
“So I am happy with that. But that was not the plan.”
WINGING IT
Ireland had afford themselves that luxury having gone in at the break ahead thanks to two well-crafted headed goals, scored by Finn Azaz and Matt Doherty.
Hallgrímsson said: “I think we hurt them on those occasions when we switched across and made deeper runs, even from midfield. The wing play was good and that was the plan.”
Troy Parrott‘s performance – which included a fine assist for Azaz and repeated clever runs – went some way to justifying his selection ahead of Evan Ferguson, who has not found game-time significantly easier to come by at West Ham than at Brighton.
Parrott’s permanent move to AZ Alkmaar from Tottenham has gone rather better.
He said: “I think you saw in this game he’s sharp he’s sharp because he’s playing all of the time.
“He’s been playing Europa League games against good opponents so he just transferred that to this game. I think it was the correct decision to play him in this game.
“Bulgaria is a team which hadn’t lost at home since this coach took over, 13 games ago now. They are really good results.
“They’re difficult to break them down. We analysed the game and we thought it was going to be played like this, with the spaces in behind, meaning we needed a good runner in behind, good crosses etc. I think that was the case.”
STICKING TO THE PLAN
The selection of Ryan Manning to start when he was called into the squad only as a replacement after Callum O’Dowda was ruled out naturally attracted some comment.
But Hallgrímsson insisted it was not as left-field as it might have been viewed.
He said: “That was the plan, to play two left-footed players on the left wing. There is so little difference between these players.
“They all have really good attacking qualities, whether it’s Robbie Brady, Ryan or Callum. For us it was a no-brainer.”
Brady, at left-back, continued his renaissance in international football under the Icelander who has identified the Preston North End veteran as his most consistent performer so far.
The sight of someone soldiering on when they have had blood pouring out of them always goes down well with the fans too.
And Hallgrímsson said: “A lot of players would have come off with a runny nose, head injury etc but he stayed on the pitch.
“What I was impressed with was the way they defended without giving fouls because it would be really easy to be too aggressive in the duels.
“He showed, and I said it inside, that it’s important for the older players to lead and lead by example and they really did.”
That included slowing the play down whenever he could in the second half.
He said: “We call that game-management. You learn that with experience and that is something that they need to share and lead on, and they did.
“I’m happy with that. That is something that you need to be clever about.
“You don’t work on those things, it comes with experience. Even things like, don’t lose it and keep your emotions controlled
“I think sometimes we are too aggressive when we want the referee to give us something. We need to control our emotions and be smart.”
YELLOW WARNING
That helped to inform his decision to make five substitutions in the last 17 minutes as they looked to avoid having a man sent off for the second game running.
He said: “It’s difficult in a match like this to come in as a sub.
“Sometimes the game loses momentum. I think they made five changes as well, so the game becomes a little bit disorganised at this time.
“But it’s good for us to cool it down. We were afraid of our players getting yellow cards.
“It needs just a slip and you have a second one, you are one man down, so we tried to substitute those guys that were on a yellow, and they will be fresh again in the next game.
“The pitch was really slippery. The referee made a special line in his refereeing. There were a lot of free-kicks and yellow cards. We just have to be smarter to see what the line is from the referee.”
