{"id":81939,"date":"2025-10-15T10:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/81939\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:12:08","slug":"nathan-collins-credits-solid-ireland-for-grinding-out-win-against-armenia-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/81939\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Collins credits \u2018solid\u2019 Ireland for grinding out win against Armenia \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republic of Ireland<\/a> captain Nathan Collins<\/a> says there was no panic in the Ireland dressingroom at half-time against Armenia despite their World Cup<\/a> qualification hopes hanging by a thread. <\/p>\n

The sending off of Armenian captain Tigran Barseghyan early in the second half changed the complexion of the contest at the Aviva Stadium, with Ireland grinding out a 1-0 win.<\/p>\n

There had been noticeable boos emanating from sections of the ground at the half-time whistle but Collins says the players were confident that by sticking to their game plan they would find a way to break the visitors down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought defensively we were very good. I think they had one chance in the first half on the counter-attack but other than that I thought we were in control of it,\u201d said Collins.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defensive block worked well. We probably wanted to press a bit higher. (At half-time) I think we knew we could do more, I think we were probably a little bit too deep, and that was probably a rollover of Portugal, maybe. We wanted to press higher. I thought we did that at the start of the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the fans want us to be front foot and on it all the time but sometimes the best thing is just to be solid. I thought we\u2019d done that in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collins praised the combative approach of S\u00e9amus Coleman \u2013 who bundled over Armenian goalkeeper Henri Avagyan with a late collision at the start of the second half, an incident that energised the home crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cS\u00e9amus lit it up a bit, he got us going. He had a big tackle, it changes everything when the fans get behind you. They get riled up, it puts more pressure on them and maybe the emotions got the better of the Armenians and that can happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, it\u2019s not really us that changes, it\u2019s the fans that can change. Something little like S\u00e9amus doing it can change everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t pretty against Armenia but in terms of what Ireland needed, it was at least mission accomplished. However, Hungary\u2019s draw with Portugal on Tuesday was the unexpected fly in the ointment.<\/p>\n

\"Hungary'sHungary’s Dominik Szoboszlai celebrates a late goal to equalise against Portugal. Photograph: Patricia de Melo Moreira\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Ireland now almost certainly need to get something from their home fixture against Portugal on November 13th. Should Hungary beat Armenia and Ireland lose to Portugal, then it\u2019s curtains even before Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a>\u2019s team step on a plane to Budapest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you bring Portugal to the Aviva, I think the aim is to win the game no matter what,\u201d added Collins.<\/p>\n

\u201cHungary away, the last game of the campaign, anything can happen. But Portugal at home, it\u2019s going to be an exciting game. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m comfortable enough with big teams coming here. I think we can perform against them. I think the fans get excited for it, I think it\u2019s a great challenge. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the fans are on it, it\u2019s tough for any team. We\u2019ve seen it before, we\u2019ve seen how big teams come here and they struggle with it. Their support is immense. When they\u2019re with us, you really feel like you can\u2019t be beaten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan Manning and Jayson Molumby will miss the game through suspension but Collins believes the set-up has sufficient depth to deal with such losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a decent squad. We have players that can come in. We missed Josh Cullen tonight, so he comes back in. I think Jayson\u2019s been unbelievable the last few games, he\u2019s been unreal. Ryan as well, defensively and going forward he\u2019s very good. We will miss him, but we\u2019ll have players to come in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republic of Ireland captain Nathan Collins says there was no panic in the Ireland dressingroom at half-time against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4700,61,60,7522,43,1842,4018],"class_list":["post-81939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nathan-collins","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}