Ireland will face Wales in Cardiff, on November 29th, and in the Aviva four days later, to decide if a first Euros follows a maiden World Cup.
The result will be all that matters then. Sadly tonight, the rush for goals didn’t materialise.
They huffed and puffed on a beautiful, still night but the Georgian house didn’t collapse; true, it creaked and buckled but yet didn’t collapse.
Nearly everything is progress for them; from 11, 9, 6 and now 3-0. Little acorns and all that.
Ireland have to wait a few weeks to see what their future looks like. This night, mercifully, will be long forgotten by then.
We had noticed the returning Turkish-based striker, Teona Bakradze, perhaps the visitors’ best player, reminding us why she had served a suspension on Friday.
She clattered local favourite Katie McCabe at the kick-off; McCabe would wreak instant revenge, initiating the opening goal just two-and-a-half minutes later.
Her ball into the middle was cosseted neatly by Kyra Carusa, laid off to Marissa Sheva and, though the comeback girl’s straight shot was saved, player of the match Julie-Ann Russell slammed home the rebound to initiate Ireland’s most popular celebration for the third time of her own revived Irish career.
Tallaght was muted, even without the usual selfish suspects who didn’t bother to show up.
That said, for lengthy spells there was not that much to shout about; paltry efforts at a Mexican Wave in a corner of the stand where Courtney Brosnan held lonesome sentry mirrored the on-field fare.
Probably to be expected given the hopelessly inadequate competitive nature of a contest that had already been decided before it had began.
Still, unsatisfactory nevertheless. Given the vast gulf in standards, Ireland again fell below them.
Russell was Ireland’s go-to option, ending the first-half with a slashed shot wide; shortly after her goal, McCabe and Sheva had combined again to release the Galwegian, but the constantly frazzled Tatia Gabunia smothered her effort.
Russell then headed wide from Aoife Mannion’s cross before Ireland’s greater presence, translated awkwardly into pressure, produced a second goal just after the half-hour mark.
Anna Patten’s disguised straight pass from back to front had a deceptively late curl and deep-lying Jess Stapleton, belying her former life as a free-scorer in the domestic league, deliciously flicked the ball into Carusa and she smashed home her second goal in five days.
If that was beauty, Ireland then did ugly.
After Mariam Kalandadze bundled Carusa to the turf, McCabe skied the resultant penalty towards her Kilnamanagh home.
“That’s bad,” she seemed to mouth as she failed to follow up Friday’s successful 12-yarder.
At least this won’t be costly as her last missed penalty in the last European Championship qualification campaign, during the calamitous defeat to Ukraine.
But as Wales emerged dramatically against Slovakia in their pulsating battle to meet Ireland in the play-off final later this month, the imminent renewal of the Celtic cousins offers a jarring reminder of Ireland’s need to be clinical, even on nights so bereft of peril such as these.
As on Friday, McCabe switched up front for the second-half; Ireland maintaining their purpose but seeking more obvious purchase.
Lily Agg’s arrival coincided with the best move of the match but again a chance lacked finish; the Georgians were baling too much water, even as a flurry of their compatriots launched into song.
So it proved, the ubiquitous McCabe combining with Denise O’Sullivan from a poorly marked short corner, letting fly angrily with an arrowed left-footer for her 29th goal in the 55th minute, the cue for the benches to empty and punters to time their journey home.
Ireland won’t have too long to find out their destination.
Ireland: Brosnan; Mannion (Agg HT), Hayes, Patten; Larkin (Payne 58), Stapleton, O’Sullivan, Sheva, McCabe (Kiernan 74); Carusa (Atkinson 58), Russell (Molloy 83).
Georgia: Gabunia; Kadagishvili, Kalandadze, Gasviani, Chkhartishvili; Narsia, Danelia, Bukhrikidze; Khaburdzania (Ambalia 60), Bakradze (Bebia 60), Cheminava capt (Pasikashvili 88).
Ref: K Kulcar (Hungary)
