By Frank Shouldice

Rep. of Ireland 5 San Marino 0

The script went as expected. On the night of the last international soccer match at Lansdowne Road before the fabled old stadium is demolished, Steve Staunton registered his first competitive win as Ireland’s international manager.

Over 34,000 souls braved a wet, wintry night last Wednesday and saw Robbie Keane grab a hat-trick while Andy Reid’s deflected free and Kevin Doyle got the deluge underway.

It was had to get carried away by the win, especially considering San Marino conceded a total of 20 goals in two matches against Germany and the Czech Republic. Indeed, the outcome of these fixtures is so predictable that sometimes you’d wonder if they should be played at all.

Even so, it was important for Staunton’s side to put some points on the board after the shambles of Cyprus. From the kick-off it would be a difficult evening for the visitors, but they competed for every ball. Taking into account that the match attendance at Lansdowne is 14,000 greater than the entire population of the Alpine principality, their achievement was to keep the game alive for as long as possible.

Steve Finnan showed an early willingness to get forward from left-back, and he combined with Kevin Kilbane to send the first of many crosses skidding across Federico Valentini’s goalmouth. After six minutes Ireland were in front. Doyle won a free two yards outside the box and Reid’s drive took a heavy deflection off Davide Simoncini to wrongfoot the goalkeeper.

San Marino rarely got forward, and captain Andy Selva ploughed a lonely furrow up front, getting little change from Paul McShane or Richard Dunne. Goalkeeper Shay Given was reduced to the role of spectator for most of the game.

Keane should have made it two in the 14th minute when Kilbane picked him out with a cross from the left. The striker headed wide, but Doyle grabbed his first international strike 10 minutes later. Kilbane produced a fine cross from another run down the left and Doyle rose to head powerfully past Valentini from eight yards via the underside of the bar.

With a lull in proceedings Damien Duff tormented the visitors down the right, and he more than anyone kept the momentum going. He set up Kilbane after a mazy run, but the Wigan midfielder was unable to finish.

However, Kilbane’s trademark sortie down the left wing set up Keane’s first goal. Taking it to the end line, Kilbane delivered a perfect cross for Keane to control with his chest and coolly sidefoot to the net.

Silva tried his luck with a long-range free — any time San Marino got near goal this was their only game plan — but by halftime it was simply a question of how many goals Ireland might add to the tally.

Straight from the restart Doyle missed from close range when he should have done better. Finnan then combined well with Doyle to give Keane a clear view of goal, but he too squandered the chance.

By now Valentini was living a charmed life. The ball flew across his six-yard box so many times that Doyle and Keane will hardly get target practice like this until the sides meet again.

But despite creating so many openings Ireland lacked penetration, and it fell to the unlikely dribbling skills of Paul McShane to win a penalty 33 minutes from time. Simeone Bacciocchi upended him and Keane duly dispatched the spot-kick.

Andy Reid continued to work hard but, remarkably, does not look fully fit. Jonathan Douglas replaced Lee Carsley and Aiden McGeady’s introduction (for Doyle) opened up fresh options on the right. McGeady is a pacy dribbler who can beat defenders when he sees the space in front of him, and when Ireland face bigger fish in Group D he offers Staunton a badly-needed counter-attacking edge.

Duff sent another rocket across the face of the goal before he had an effort smothered by Valentini. Andy Lee, who came in for Kilbane, should have squared to Keane when he got inside the box in the 80th minute. From an inferior position he shot into the side-netting.

Keane finally claimed his hat-trick when Finnan and Reid combined on the left to drift a dangerous cross invitingly for a close-range header. It brought his goal scoring record to 29, but the overall contribution of the Irish captain leaves a lot of room for improvement, whether in his stop-start work-rate or his habit of looking for frees when he would do better to stay on his feet.

Dunne had the last chance to add a sixth, but Staunton was satisfied to complete the job. As the Irish players walked the perimeter of the pitch one last time after the final whistle supporters drifted into the rainy night, knowing the venerable old ground has seen better games and better Irish teams.

Much to the chagrin of hat-trick hero Keane, Shay Given kicked the match ball into the crowd. We don’t see too many hat-tricks at international level, and the ball was duly retrieved as a souvenir for the Irish captain.

And so it brings an end to Lansdowne Road as Ireland’s home soccer venue for the foreseeable future. The next outing will be an historic occasion, the first soccer international at GAA headquarters in Croke Park when Ireland host Wales on March 24.

The commercial arrangement between soccer and GAA associations has been a long time coming and hopefully Ireland will show similar progress on the pitch. After such a disastrous start to these qualifiers Staunton is at least getting his side to put in the effort.

On the same night Cyprus showed their revised value by holding Germany to a 1-1 draw, leaving Ireland a mountain to climb for qualification out of Group D. The Czechs, Germany, Slovakia and Cyprus are ahead of us in the pecking order.

When the new stadium is completed at Lansdowne Road, who knows what status the Irish soccer team will hold in world football.