Matt Doherty believes there is more than three points at stake in Euro 2024 qualification tomorrow night at Lansdowne Road, as the Wolves defender is on a revenge mission.
Reassurances from Stephen Kenny’s employers this week that no outcome in the October window against Greece and Gibraltar will change the scenario of Kenny being manager for the November matches has relieved some of the pressure on the Ireland manager, and Doherty, who had problems with one of Kenny’s predecessors, a tense relationship with Martin O’Neill, has given his backing to Kenny ahead of the Greece tie.
“He obviously supported me when other managers might not have played me, but there were also times when I wasn’t in the best physical shape to play but still laced up and put on the shirt.” So, I guess we’ve had a really good relationship,” Doherty says of Kenny.
“As I’ve said many times, we get brilliant coaching on the practice field.” Off the field, the preparation in terms of looking at the opposition is correct. We do things correctly. We are confident that the game plan is correct. It’s then up to us to carry it out on game day, which we don’t always do.
“But if we were capable of carrying it out, I am sure the results would have come. But for me, him [Kenny], Keith [Andrews], John [O’Shea], have been fabulous. And I would like to see them carry on, yeah.”
Automatic qualification is still a mathematical (if highly unlikely) possibility for Ireland, so a win at home to Greece could have an impact, but Doherty has another motivation as he was controversially sent off when the two sides met in Athens in June, the Irish camp unhappy with the reaction from Greek players following a challenge which – Doherty (above) believes – played a part in his dismissal and subsequent two-game ban, denying him that great stage of the tournament.
“I got a soft red and it cost me the Gibraltar game and cost me playing against France away, games I needed,” he says. “There is no hiding that I am going into the game as motivated as always. But at the back of my head, the thoughts of what happened over there and the behaviour of what we felt from some of them, there is motivation, yes.”
The Irish team has seen considerable changes this window, with mainstays such as James McClean and Jeff Hendrick missing out. Doherty concedes that the omission of centurion McClean raised some eyebrows.
“I was a little surprised to be in camp with someone who has been in pretty much every camp you have been involved in, but I guess that is the manager’s decision and he gets to pick the squad.” “I was a little surprised,” he admitted.
“He has chosen a team that he expects to win the next two games.” It is a young team, but it is loaded with talent.
“I guess we have not always shown what we are capable of but I know the squad that is here now is capable of a lot more. So we want to show that on Friday and then Monday.”
Before the September double-header against France and the Netherlands, Kenny maintained that Ireland’s displays were not being rewarded with results and that the side had “one big win” close to hand, only for the side to lose again. Doherty also sees that landscape.
“We are playing well. Greece away was the only game where we let ourselves down. And it is difficult to put your finger on it,” he admits.
“Against France at home we were an amazing save away from getting a point out of that game. France away – we were definitely beaten by the better team on the night. Then Holland at home we were a couple of personal mistakes away from winning that game also. We went 1-0 up, we had huge chances to make it 2-0. I know it has not worked out so far for us but we are not far off really from getting the type of results we really deserve.
“France, Netherlands at home, we deserved a lot more but I guess it is easy to say that when you have not got the result. It is hard to put your finger on what we need to change, we just have to put the ball in the net a little bit more and keep it out of our net a little bit more.”
The rest of 2023 may have plenty to offer Doherty, but the year has already put him to the test.
A January move to Spain yielded only one appearance for Atletico Madrid, a June red card and a two-game Ireland ban, and a summer move back to Wolves has not yielded the game-time he’d want, but he remains positive.
“I am not frustrated at all with how things have gone personally.”
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