Manager develops the sniper stare as Ireland prepare to go over the top

PLAYERS LOOKING COMBAT READY AHEAD OF WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

- GARY DOYLE

IT was only last November when Heimir Hallgrimsson looked down a big black tunnel and failed to see any light.

Now, eight months after that 5-0 hammering by England, the Icelandic boss stood in the tunnel at the Aviva and stared at a bright new dawn.

Young players are alive, older ones revived, unheralded men starting to thrive. Three results in a row hardly constitutes a run but given where Ireland were a year ago, you'll take anything.

Here they conceded a late equaliser but prior to that moment they produced 10 glorious minutes that represented the best football an Irish side has played since Euro 2016.

Not that we saw it coming because the five minutes prior was a drab spell of sideways passes.

Yes, they were patient. But they were also boring, conservative and scared-frightened to take a chance or make a mistake. Any pass that didn't go sideways went backwards. Was this the instruction from the manager? You'd hope not. And then we saw it was not. From the 20th minute on, everything changed. That slow, slow, passing programme got binned.