The 18 man squad selected by Sean McCaffrey was one of the strongest available at this level for some time with the absentees restricted to injury victims Billy Clarke and Anthony Stokes together with the unavailable Aiden McGeady. It is not without significance that the missing players are all strikers and the absence of a cutting edge in this department led to the downfall of the team and our exit from the tournament.

Ireland opened their campaign in Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad, where their opponents were a very technically adept Poland. In a half of very few openings, Poland dominated midfield exchanges where their ball retention was much superior to that of Ireland. Despite their midfield supremacy, the Poles did not threaten Ireland’s goal until the final minute of the half when a corner from the left was not dealt with by the Irish defence and was forced home from six yards to give Poland the lead.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first with Poland retaining possession of the ball for long passages of play. Midway through the half,manager Sean McCaffrey began to ring the changes and Ireland stepped up their efforts to equalise. Birmingham City defender, Marcos Painter got on the end of a Stephen Foley cross but his header was saved by the Polish goalkeeper.

The introduction of Reading’s Jonathan Hayes on 74 minutes injected some much needed pace into Ireland’s attacking ventures and Hayes was unlucky to see his snap shot drift wide. A fine cross from Ireland’s best player, Stephen Foley of Aston Villa, was headed wide by Richard Keogh and Ireland never looked like scoring thereafter.

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Ireland’s hopes of qualifying for the finals were brought to an abrupt end in their second fixture when they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Albania who had lost their opening tie 7-1 to hosts Serbia & Montenegro. Ireland dominated proceedings throughout but repeatedly failed to convert any of the several chances that presented themselves.

On 58 minutes, disaster struck for Ireland when an attack broke down and the ball was thumped forward by an Albanian defender towards their central striker. He outpaced the Irish defence and drove a low hard shot through the hands of goalkeeper, Terry Masterson.

Ireland re-grouped and continued to attack the Albanian rearguard with Jonathan Hayes very unlucky when his shot across the keeper struck the far post and bounced out. Better fortune ensued on 78 minutes when Andy Keogh broke down the left and his cross was headed home by Ian Morris for the equaliser.
With nine minutes remaining, some neat build up play presented Keogh with an opportunity but be shot over the bar. In the final minute of the game, controvesy reigned when an Irish free kick from the left eluded the first line of defenders and fell to Shane Long wide on the right, he fired in a powerful shot which struck the keeper and fell to Keogh who netted. The referee pointed to the centre circle but Irish euphoria was shattered when the referee changed his mind on the advice of his assistant who belatedly flagged for offside.

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With only pride at stake for the players, Ireland faced hosts Serbia & Montenegro in the final game of the Elite Qualifying Group at Novi Sad. The team performed with a greater degree of application and spirit that had been evident in their opening two fixtures and were a little unlucky to lose to a single first half goal from Serbia.

Ireland were well served in this match by Aston Villa’s Stephen Foley who was our most consistent player over the three matches. Also prominent was Paul McShane of Manchester United but it was his centre back partner, Celtic’s Darren O’Dea who was the undoubted man of the match. O’Dea is eligible at this level again next season, as are six more of the squad, and he would seem the obvious choice to lead the squad in the first qualifying stage to be hosted by Ireland next October.

Also eligible from this series are goalkeeper Darren Randolph of Charlton Athletic, utility players Darron Gibson from Manchester United and Ian Morris of Leeds United and strikers Jonathan Hayes of Reading, Celtic’s Diarmuid O’Carroll and Shane Long from Cork City. With the quintet from Ipswich Town’s successful FA Youth Cup winning side together with the emerging Anthony Stokes at Arsenal also eligible, Ireland will look forward with some optimism to October when their Group 6 rivals will be Italy, Latvia and Northern Ireland.