Kevin Kilbane: Hints of green shoots as Ireland find a way

Nobody expects anything more than green shoots. The base expectation from this Nations League campaign was two wins over Finland and competitive resistance against Greece and England.
It started poorly, and while it can still go badly wrong against England at Wembley, slow and steady progress is now evident under Heimir Hallgrímsson.
And that is all we can hope for these days.
Taking Ireland at Wembley in isolation, there is symmetry to Lee Carsley beginning and ending his caretaker stint as the England boss against the country for whom he played all his international football.
I don’t know what the future holds for my old friend and former Everton team-mate but I know Carso will never die wondering. He took a calculated risk that didn’t pay off in his selection against Greece at home in October, with Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham operating as false nines. It backfired.
The English media closed on him following the 2-1 loss, ridiculing his ability to coach at the highest level. Yet this week, after making another brave call to select Ollie Watkins over Harry Kane, a 3-0 win in Athens has the same media framing him as a top manager.
Carsley has been around long enough to know how it goes, but the lesson was delivered in stark terms; never get too high, never get too low. He stuck to his principles. He tried to implement new ideas. The England under-21s will profit from his return.
Ireland were resilient against Finland on Thursday. The Nations League campaign can be summed up by the performances of Caoimhín Kelleher and Nathan Collins; the two young Premier League performers mixed solid and high-quality displays with gaffes that led directly to goals in Helsinki and Athens last month.
Both avoided any error on Thursday to deliver incredible defensive displays. Without them, Ireland would still be in the doldrums.
It is easy to warm to Heimir Hallgrímsson. He’s a bit of a character. It takes bravery to recall Matt Doherty and the veteran right back reacted, from what seemed the end of his international career, with an important 90 minutes against Finland.
Even with the injuries, Hallgrímsson could have moved beyond the Wolves full back. He bet on him. It paid off.
The left-wingers society is doing just fine. Ideally, that does not include Anthony Gordon at Wembley on Sunday evening. But I can safely say all of Damien Duff’s former team-mates were delighted to see him guide Shelbourne to a League of Ireland title.
I’d also state with confidence that Duffer would be as pleased as I was to see Mikey Johnston stymie Nikolai Alho’s attacking threat by twisting the Finish right back into knots at Lansdowne Road.
Johnston is a throwback winger with plenty of Duff ingredients, like how he glides past defenders, with some Kevin Sheedy and a little Kilbane throw in, mainly because Mikey knows what pays the bills. Isolate the fullback, make him believe you’re cutting back, throw a feint and take him to the end line.
All the while Evan Ferguson was drifting into position, knowing that Robert Ivanov would not be able to live with him in an aerial duel. Johnston’s delivery was precise and pacy, which invited Evan to thump his header into the net.
There is no better goal in football. Stand up your man and pick out the striker. Sounds so simple but it is a rare bird in the modern game.
We know that Ferguson’s career has no limits, but it is a huge boost to see him moving freely again.
One-nil Ireland was how it finished but anyone watching would know that they were blessed to secure three points, in Helsinki and Dublin.
Let’s bask in the positives, especially individual performances from Kelleher, Festy Ebosele, Collins, Johnston and Ferguson, and run to the hills.
Hallgrímsson has enough to work with. World Cup qualification still looks beyond them but all we’ve ever asked of our Irish teams is to be competitive enough to make the play-offs to reach major tournaments.
That’s always been the base expectation. Resilience leads to lucky results, it leads to clean sheets and that’s how confidence is built – barely beating an average Finland is far better than some of the miserable results we’ve witnessed in Dublin over the last few years.
That is how we qualified for the 2002 World Cup and the Euros in 2012 and 2016. Everyone sticks together, everyone sees Collins and Liam Scales put their bodies on the line. Everyone reacts to Kelleher’s penalty save, especially after he hurt himself diving on the rebound and played on.
That’s what Irish football is all about. Get over the line, never die wondering.
I enjoyed the collective attitude. Collins and others held the line until Ferguson and Kelleher sprinkled magic dust on the occasion.
It starts with Jinky Johnston finding the space to torture his man by getting to the line and picking out our big centre forward.
The rest will follow.