Ice-cool Irish goal hero delighted to get his name up in lights
Related Articles
Ireland's small pocket of supporters hailed timely goalscorer Keith Fahey as their newest hero last night -- but the former St Pat's man admits that Giovanni Trapattoni can call him what he likes.
Trapattoni struggles with pronunciation at the best of times and Fahey revealed that he struggles with him too. "In fairness, I don't care what he calls me, he can call me what he wants," Fahey said.
Fahey's substitution may have been inspired, or merely lucky, as Ireland toiled in the heat of Yerevan, but the Birmingham City man was the coolest man in the stadium as he calmly stroked home the winner just four minutes after his arrival.
"The manager just told me to get involved in and around the front men because we were putting in a few high balls which were causing them a bit of trouble.
"There was a bit of a scramble in the box and the ball kind of bounced kindly for me and I was fortunate enough to be able to stroke it in the corner. It's been a long timing coming for me."
Captain Robbie Keane had an indifferent night, as did most of his team-mates, although he insisted that it was a great performance from his men.
"It was a great performance by the team, I think," said Keane. "It doesn't matter who you play away from home, it's always tough. They're not a bad team, it was a difficult game but we definitely deserved to win.
"Persisting in such oven-like conditions required patience. It was very bad, the humidity, there was no air. I think you probably saw that in the first 20 minutes of second half before we got a grip. Full credit to the lads, obviously we're not used to this heat."
Paul Green admitted to giving the ball away too much, an affliction that infected the whole squad in a lacklustre display. But, as Trapattoni would insist, the result is paramount.
"The most important thing is to get off to a good start and we got off to a great start today," agreed Keane. "It's important that we continue that. These are the games we usually slip up in. Three points -- I think everyone has to be delighted with that."
- David Kelly
Irish Independent
