Ireland's winning run comes to an end as Senegal cancel out McAteer's opener

Irish Daily Mirror

a day ago

FA Cup winner Ismaila Sarr came off the bench on Friday night to earn Senegal a draw in Dublin - and ruin Heimir Hallgrímsson's hopes of claiming a little piece of Irish footballing history.
The Boys in Green were on course for their third straight win of the calendar year - for the first time since 2007 - thanks to Kasey McAteer's early opener.
Never before has an Irish team kicked off their year with four consecutive wins, so this would have added a bit of spice to next Tuesday's game in Luxembourg.
But Crystal Palace winger Sarr put an end to that when he smashed home the rebound after Caoimhin Kelleher stuck out a leg to deny fellow substitute Cherif Ndiaye's shot.
Visiting manager Pape Bouna Thiaw put out an inexperienced starting-11, five of whom had fewer than 10 appearances going into this game, including previously uncapped goalkeeper Yehvann Diouf.
Monaco midfielder Krepin Diatta, winning his 44th cap, was their most experienced starter as they were overrun by their hosts for much of the game, until Thiaw threw on several of his more seasoned stars.
On the Irish side, eyebrows were raised when the host lined out somewhere between a 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1 formation, with Ipswich Town midfielder Jack Taylor the closest man to Celtic striker Adam Idah.
Taylor had one relatively prolific season in League One with Peterborough, when he scored 10 goals in 52 appearances.
But the seven he has scored in 75 games for the Tractor Boys meant few would have expected to see the 26-year-old in such an advanced position in just his fourth senior cap.
When Will Smallbone was named in the starting-11, in his first display in a green jersey since last September's Nations League double-header against England and Greece, it was expected that he would be the advanced midfielder, perhaps playing just behind Idah.
Hallgrímsson's comments earlier in the week pointed to as much, when he said: 'He's technical. I would see him more as a forward thinking midfielder than a defensive one.
'Where do I see him? More attacking minded than defensively minded, I think that's his profile.'
Yet he started the night lying deep, alongside Jason Knight, while Ryan Manning and McAteer, on his first start for Ireland, provided the width going forward.
McAteer showed strength and pace in the third minute to squeeze between two defenders, but lacked composure when, in a great crossing position, he managed only to clip the ball into the hands of Diouf.
But he got the better of the debut-making Stade Reims netminder on 21 minutes as Ireland raced into a deserved lead.
Just weeks after his first Premier League goal, in a 2-0 win against Ipswich, he scored at the second attempt after a wonderful piece of goalkeeping looked to have thwarted him.
It started from a Smallbone corner that had Matt Doherty and O'Shea arguing at the back post over who should have got their head to it.
They were still deep in conversation as the ball dropped to Manning just outside the area, and his clever ball back in with the outside of his left boot was nodded on by Nathan Collins.
McAteer sprung the offside trap to head the ball towards goal, Diouf showed great agility to claw it out from under his crossbar, but as it fell to McAteer again with his back to goal, he controlled it on the spin and drilled the ball home from six yards.
Cue the celebrations - and an end at last to the bickering between Doherty and O'Shea as they were spotted shaking hands while McAteer wheeled away to take the acclaim of his teammates and the crowd.
O'Shea, earlier in the night, had a let-off when he almost sent a Senegal corner into his own net. The ball sailed over Collins' head, bounced off his shin and ricocheted just wide of the post.
That was the closest that the inexperienced visitors came to scoring in the first-half, but O'Shea went even closer to beating Caoimhin Kelleher in the second-half when he deflected Sarr's shot onto the upright.
A spectator in the first-half, Kelleher gave Brentford fans a glimpse of what they can expect with a wonder-save early in the second, when he denied Diatta with a stunning fingertip stop.
His touch was so slight that only a replay from behind the goal - which drew gasps from the crowd when it played on the giant screens - picked it up, but it was enough to push Diatta's header onto the underside of the bar.
Minutes earlier, space opened up for Smallbone on the edge of the area, but he directed his effort too close to Diouf, whose parry fell to Manning. With the angle against him, though, the Galwayman fired wide of the near post.
FA Cup winner Sarr broke Irish hearts with a late equaliser, when he finished at the back post after Kelleher saved well again, this time to deny Cherif Ndiaye.
And another sub, Cheikh Sabaly, was inches from heading Senegal to an undeserved victory in the 86th minute, but his effort flew just wide of the right-hand post.