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Republic of Ireland boss Martin O\u2019Neill has admitted 2018 has been a deeply disappointing 12 months for his team.<\/p>\nRepublic of Ireland boss Martin O\u2019Neill has admitted 2018 has been a deeply disappointing 12 months for his team.<\/p>\n
Ireland will play their final fixture of the calendar year in Denmark on Monday evening having won only once in eight outings to date, far from the ideal preparation for the Euro 2020 qualifiers, which get under way in March.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill has used many of those fixtures to blood new players and experiment with alternative systems, but he is well aware that results have been disappointing.<\/p>\n
Asked if expected to have made more progress during the year, he said: \u201cI would have hoped to, absolutely. I would like to have thought we could have found a wee bit more going forward, maybe have got an established goalscorer.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it hasn\u2019t been. It\u2019s certainly been a disappointing year in that aspect, no question about it, and we have to regroup.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, O\u2019Neill remains convinced that his team will more than make a fist of qualification \u2013 indeed, he insisted last month that they would qualify.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe bigger picture is the Euro qualifiers. There is no question about that, regardless of what happens on Monday night and that has always been the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we will be ready for it. We were ready for it a couple of years ago. We had a really strong battle to qualify for the Euros and we got through to the play-offs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully some of the players are coming back. I\u2019m hoping one or two of the young lads in and around the scene, who have only played a couple of games, can come through.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut like everything else, we have to try and score a goal. That would be nice.\u201d<\/p>\n