AS disgruntled Irish fans sloped down the steep steps either side of the press tribune high up in the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night, quite a lot of them booed.
It was perhaps a slightly harsh reaction to Ireland’s 2-0 home loss to Greece.
Of course, you never truly know the origins or the motivations behind boos – but it’s a safe bet some of their wrath was aimed at the FAI, not so much new manager Heimir Hallgrimsson.
After all, the Icelandic’s feet are still acclimatising to the lush green grass out in Abbotstown.
He’d three or four training sessions with the squad and there is so much he doesn’t know about the individual personalities he’s now in charge of.
So, in many ways, the two Uefa Nations games against England and Greece were free hits for Hallgrimsson. Not so for the Ireland team.
He couldn’t be blamed for either defeat and was almost an interested observer, albeit from the dug-out for both games.
He did, however, react swiftly with positive substitutions once the Greeks went in front in the 50th minute.
Other coaches might have waited another five or 10 minutes – but Hallgrimsson threw on Evan Ferguson for the last half hour and removed one of his defensive pivots [Jayson Molumby] and the attack-minded Kasey McAteer was given 20 minutes to make an impression.
Greece, as it transpired, grabbed a second goal with three minutes remaining. As soon as Christos Tzolis found the net with a rasping left-foot drive, it was then the Aviva emptied.
The boos were harsh on one level - but easy to understand too.
It all depends where your expectations are. Some fans had expectations of victory against the Greeks.
Based on what is hard to discern. Ireland haven’t hit the net in five out of their last six games. They’re a team woefully short on confidence, on leadership and on quality.
Expectations, in reality, have never been lower for the Republic of Ireland. Their first half performance was praised - largely because they managed to keep possession reasonably well, but they still didn’t carry any cutting edge.
But that’s where the team is right now, where you celebrate the small victories of simply keeping the ball for a bit and assembling a decent press to deny Greece building from the back.
Scoring a goal just seemed out of the question though. The truth is Ireland have been hoovering above minnow status ever since Stephen Kenny assumed the reins in late 2020. It probably even pre-dates Kenny’s reign.
Greece are an infinitely better team than Ireland. They’re more experienced. They have a defined system of play and they have a couple of clever artisans in the final third of the pitch.
A 2-0 defeat shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
I suppose the frustration – or, more precisely, annoyance – was related to the dearth of quality in Irish ranks, but also the slow recruitment of a manager.
The full ramifications of not having a permanent successor to Stephen Kenny in place in March – never mind the June window – was an association under-performing.
Remember, Kenny was let go last November, even though he was probably never holding onto his job after the debacle in Athens five months earlier when they lost to Greece in the Euro 2024 Qualifiers.
Allowing an interim manager – John O’Shea - to be in charge for two international windows with no prospect of him landing the job on a permanent basis was throwing precious preparation time away.
The Irish players deserve some slack here.
“Speed wasn’t a measure of success for this process,” FAI Football Director Canham told the media.
It was a nice soundbite.
But, of course, we now know – if we didn’t know back in February - that speed actually was important to the process.
After Greece outplayed Ireland in Athens in June 2023, the managerial search should have begun and been stepped up, as the lack of speed in finding a manager ended up selling everyone short – none more so than the Irish players themselves and the 50,000 fans who paid their hard-earned money to watch them flounder against England.
An Amateur League team would have been better prepared ahead of the new season than the Irish players were facing into the England game last Saturday evening.
When Hallgrimsson insisted on managing Jamaica at the Copa America in July, it was probably too late for the FAI to re-direct their managerial search.
But it was their own fault for dithering.
In agreeing to Hallgrimsson’s Copa America request – or ultimatum – the senior team was effectively throwing away Nations League points to England and Greece.
The handover between O’Shea and Hallgrimsson wasn’t seamless at all because after just one game the more experienced Icelandic realised that Ireland’s 5-3-2 formation was malfunctioning spectacularly.
Throughout his managerial career, Stephen Kenny was always a fan of playing with a back four - but after a handful of games as Ireland boss, he switched to a back five and rarely shifted from it.
In November 22, Kenny explained why he would be sticking with three central defenders and wing-backs.
“I just think the characteristics of the team, the players we’ve got, this definitely suits the team and playing in the way that we are,” he said.
“We’ve a lot of central defenders, we’ve got wing-backs and we’ve got to maximise the talent that we have and I think it’s a system that suits the players that we have best.”
Hallgrimsson has shown some decisiveness after a mere week in camp.
The only people culpable for another miserable chapter for Irish football last week were the FAI. Not the players. They deserved better from the association.
And so, too, did the Irish fans. They had every right to boo at the end of Tuesday night’s defeat.