Opinion: No longer hard to beat, just much harder to watch

Where to start?

First of all, I am going to take my Irish fan’s hat off in favour of addressing the stark reality.

I travelled to the Armenian capital to watch our country face a team ranked 105th in the world, 45 places worse off than the Republic of Ireland.

Outside of the football, it was a great trip: a friendly atmosphere, plenty of heat, great bars, and a unique cuisine.

Four flights to get there and back from Yerevan, including stopovers at Rome, Paphos, and a diverted flight home through Cologne. Yes, that’s all I needed after watching the disastrous performance from the Boys in Green the night prior.

Coming into this away fixture in Armenia, most Irish fans felt it had been a missed opportunity not to defeat Hungary after they went down to ten men early on in the second-half. We took the point after a late Adam Idah goal to secure a 2-2 draw, and we moved on.

A win was needed in Yerevan; nothing less would suffice. The opposition team had just been dismantled 5-0 by Portugal in their own backyard a few days before. And the same Armenian side had lost at home to a 141st-ranked Faroe Islands outfit last November.

Yet Ireland, who have had their World Cup dreams dashed after this 2-1 defeat, were outplayed, outran, outclassed and out-passed by this Armenian side.

To put it simply, any sort of positivity before the World Cup qualifying campaign has been firmly flung out the window after only two games – another campaign is over before it has even started.

Heimir Hallgrímsson’s job is also under serious threat – he knew his team needed four points at the very least from the two games. Instead, we have just one. He put all his eggs in one basket by saying this country would be at the World Cup next year. As he said following the defeat in Yerevan, we now need a ‘miracle’ to qualify.

Boos, abuse and finger gestures towards the manager and players followed from Irish fans after the game. It was definitely the most toxic atmosphere I’ve come across since my first game supporting the Boys in Green in 2008.

So, where to next? That’s the million-dollar question. Players are not bringing their club form into an Irish jersey. It all seems a bit too friendly and laboured; there is no grit in this Irish team.

Do the FAI turn to someone out of a job, like a passionate Damien Duff, or even the suggestion of Roy Keane is being thrown about. We don’t need a ‘yes man’ now; it’s time for someone to lay down the law.

The downfall of Irish football stems from years of lack of structure, non-investment in the League of Ireland, as well as inadequate facilities around the country, and not to mention the mishandling of money. It has all caught up with our national team.

As a paying fan who travels home and away to support our nation, this Armenia result is a new low – historically one of the worst ever results for an Irish side.

Irish teams traditionally thrive off being hardworking and hard to beat – we are not hard to beat anymore.

The next window is fast approaching; this time next month, we will have travelled to Lisbon to face a high-flying Portugal team, before hosting Armenia at home.

Hallgrímsson now knows Ireland will have to get at least four points from the Portuguese if he wants to save his job and Ireland’s campaign. I wish him the best of luck.