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O’Shea: Our World Cup dream isn’t over under Kenny

Dara O'Shea remains optimistic about Ireland's qualification prospects Expand

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Dara O'Shea remains optimistic about Ireland's qualification prospects

Dara O'Shea remains optimistic about Ireland's qualification prospects

Dara O'Shea remains optimistic about Ireland's qualification prospects

Aidan Fitzmaurice

His debut season of Premier League football looks set to end in the misery of relegation, as Dara O’Shea and West Brom need a series of miracles to avoid a return to the Championship.

But the Dubliner insists it’s too soon to write off his first World Cup campaign, insisting there’s scope for the Republic of Ireland to stay on course for qualification by recovering from a return of no points from two games.

While Stephen Kenny asked a lot of the players he has promoted from the U-21 squad – such as Gavin Bazunu, Jason Knight, Troy Parrott and Aaron Connolly - over the past week, it was O’Shea who came through the three-game series with his reputation most enhanced as he played all three games.

The optics following those defeats in the World Cup look grim for Ireland. They stand alongside Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Gibraltar, Andorra, San Marino, Iceland and Liechtenstein as teams showing no points from the first two games and no one expects any of those nations to turn things around and make it to Qatar.

But O’Shea sees hope. “I don’t think anyone can write us off as such,” he says. “We haven’t got off to the start we wanted. That’s it now, it’s behind us and we have to look forward. We can’t dwell on it.

“The other night (against Luxembourg) was tough for each and every one of us to take, but I don’t think you can write us off, there are a lot of games still to be played.

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“Even Serbia in Portugal, teams have been writing Serbia off and they come away with a draw there. I think in international football that anything can happen as you saw the other night and it’s definitely still a possibility,” added O’Shea.

“Moving forward we are definitely moving in the right direction.

“I think the way the management and the staff have implemented their ways is something that people should be looking forward to and like watching but it’s going to take time. It’s obviously the first time that we’ve done this as a group so it’s a work in progress,” added O’Shea.

While his contemporaries, such as Parrott and Jayson Molumby, struggled to find their feet at times, O’Shea appeared to be comfortable on the big stage, drawing praise from former Ireland captain Kenny Cunningham who selected him as man of the match against Qatar.

“I’ve had enough experience now in men’s football to be able to take that responsibility and playing for your nation as well, you have to step up to the plate. It’s as simple as that. When you put on that green shirt, I have to step up and play well and likewise with everyone else because we are representing our nation,” he said.

O’Shea also spoke in defence of Kenny, who is under fire after a win-less run of 11 games.

“Stephen has been great and I have no bad words to say about him. He came in with the 21s when I was there. Us as players in the 21s group, we really bought into it and it was amazing for us to have a manager who was going to step up to the first team.

"He is kind of implementing his ways for us to build us as players stepping into that first-team environment. He has taken to the job really well here. It has been tough with injuries and through Covid and different things like that, there have been different barriers in the way. But as a group everyone is behind him and everyone backs him.”

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