Ireland 5-0 Grenada
Ireland’s training camp in Spain ended with a second-half rout of Grenada on Saturday, with two goals from Tom Cannon followed by a sensational hat-trick from Jack Moylan.
That Darragh Maloney spent much of the first 15 minutes of commentary introducing each player to the average viewer was a telling indication of the setup to this game.
Grenada, ranked 163rd in the world, were not the most challenging opposition, and few first-choice Ireland players were in action.
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Admittedly, the lighting in the stadium made it extremely difficult to differentiate the players on occasion, but we still gleaned some intriguing insight into an unfamiliar group of Irish players.
Here are our six biggest takeaways from the game.
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Jack Moylan announces his arrival
Plenty of intrigue surrounded Jack Moylan’s debut, and he more than lived up to the hype with a superb second-half hat-trick to put some shine on the scoreline for Ireland.
No Ireland player had scored a hat-trick on debut since 1987, while Troy Parrott’s treble in Budapest is the only other Irish hat-trick on non-Irish soil.
Moylan matched both feats on Saturday (granted, against weak opposition), and was consistently the brightest and most adventurous of the attacking talent. Expect to see plenty more of the
Five-at-the-back is still ‘Plan A’
The opening weeks of Heimir Hallgrímsson’s tenure saw the Icelander attempt to move Ireland to a relatively unfamiliar 4-3-3 formation, an experiment that was quickly abandoned.
Since those opening games against England and Greece, Hallgrímsson has preferred a 5-at-the-back, with flirtations with playing two players up top on occasion.
That Heimir stuck with a back five from the off against the 163rd-ranked team in the world heavily suggests that it will remain that way in the long run.
This game wappeared the perfect opportunity to give the next generation of Irish players a chance to test their abilities in a back four against international opposition. Instead, it appeared to confirm that a back five is the long-term plan.
That being said, Ireland did show some tactical flexibility in switching to a back four in the second half
Andrew Moran takes his long-awaited chance
Let’s be honest, this is not the kind of game one builds a team based on, especially given the lacklustre performance. However, there were enough encouraging sides even in this setting to believe some of these players could play a role in the months to come.
Chief among those was Andrew Moran, whose shot at a prolonged outing in an Ireland shirt was long overdue.
Moran was introduced at the break, and provided a clever assist for Moylan’s second goal. Much of Ireland’s attacking movement went through the young playmaker in the second half, as he took his chance with aplomb.
Some were disappointed that the man he replaced off the bench, Conor Coventry, was excluded from the squad for Prague, and he showed plenty of composure on the ball in the first half.
Tayo Adaramola, too, looked bright for large spells of the game.
Tom Cannon is a forward option to consider
Tom Cannon’s opportunities at senior level with Ireland have been limited, but he grabbed this chance with both hands.
Ireland were looking for inspiration when the young striker was introduced off the bench, and he delivered it immediately.
Cannon scored twice in ten minutes, with the second a particularly ruthless finish.
The link-up play with Idah to create the second goal was also encouraging. If Ireland can add another striker to their repertoire, perhaps the load on the shoulders of Idah, Troy Parrott, and Evan Ferguson will ease.
The World Cup pain will take some time to die
It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that this camp was likely planned as a pre-World Cup warm-up camp.
The warm-weather venue, the chance to check out an entirely new group of players…it all only reminds you of how exciting this time would have been if Ireland were preparing to kick off in Mexico in a few weeks.
The last eight weeks have been defined by “what if?” questions after the play-off loss in Prague, and these only brought those to the forefront of our minds once more.
Attention will soon turn to the Euros in 2028, but as the World Cup fast approaches, it’s hard to imagine the pain of Prague dying down anytime soon.
Heimir likely learned more than we did
In truth, there’s only so much the average Irish fan can take from this evening’s win over Grenada, but one thing is for certain: Heimir Hallgrímsson will have learned plenty about his Ireland squad.
The head coach has been wary of making wholesale changes to his starting XI over the past 12 months, so this was an intriguing opportunity to cast his eye over some talents who have been pushing hard for their chance during that time.
In total, seven players made their full Ireland debuts – Tayo Adaramola, Jack Moylan, Will Ferry, Millenic Alli, Aidomo Emakhu, Rory Finneran, and Josh Keeley. It was a more routine test than they might be expected to meet in years to come, but it was long overdue experience in an Irish shirt for many.
While it may not have been the most riveting of occasions, it may well prove to be an important one for Heimir and Ireland down the line.
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