Republic of Ireland - Luck of the Irish

The IFA have today confirmed former Ireland international Kenny Cunningham as their new national team manager. Cunningham had a playing career with Milwall, Wimbledon and Birmingham with a small spell at Sunderland.

Roy Keane was set to become assistant under O'Neill but as Cunningham has taken over, there were questions about what would happen involving him but Keane will work as assistant under Cunningham.

Ireland currently have four game remaining in the World Cup Qualifying group and are sitting in fourth and are nine points behind group leaders Germany. Qualifying looks almost impossible for Ireland and so Cunningham has said that his main aims include Euro 2016.

Cunnungham has told the press: "Qualifying is pretty much impossible for the World Cup and so we will focus on Euro 2016. This is however not an excuse to become complacent during our remaining games"

The remaining games in the World Cup Qualifiers are against Faroe Islands (174 in the world rankings), Germany (2 in the world rankings), Sweden (31 in the world rankings) and Austria (52 in the world rankings)

Cunningham's first game in charge is a friendly on the 14th of August at the Aviva Stadium against Andorra.

I am noticing a home nations trend in terms of stories...I like it. Good luck.

@Jamesg237 Thanks, yeah I have noticed a few England stories going around

The Irish Football Association (IFA) have today announced the twenty-three man squad to face Andorra in a friendly. This will be Cunningham's first game in charge. The squad is as follows:

Good luck mate! I really enjoy your stories!

Good Luck mate, all that is needed now is a Northern Ireland story and we have all 4 home nations stories, now I have started a Welsh one

Ohhh and I hope that Callum Reilly will be in this team sooner rather then later :p

@Cameroncox96 Thanks. And yeah, there are a lot of home nation stories now. And about Callum Reilly, we'll see!

Ireland have won their first game under Kenny Cunningham as Ireland national team Head Coach. The game finished two nil after goals in each half by John O'Shea and Jame McClean.

Lineup: (4-2-3-1)
Forde,Coleman,O'Shea,St Ledger,Ward,McCarthy,Gibson,Buckley,Cox,McClean,Long

Used Subs:
Doyle,O'Brien,Whelan,Walters,Chambers,McGoldrick

Unused Subs:
Randolph,Pearce,McCann,Westwood

Goal Scorers:
John O'Shea (24)
James McClean (74)

Bookings:
James McCarthy (16)

Cunningham's Notes:
For my first game in charge I was impressed by the team's performance and how well they played, I felt that did well adapting to the formation and tactics. I felt that we passed the ball well, created some great chances via the long ball and our fan seemed very entertained.

I'm very pleased with John [O'Shea] and James [McClean] for getting the goals but you can't just focus on the attack. I felt we defended well as a unit and made it hard for Andorra to create chances, they failed to have a shot and target and that in my eyes shows how well we defended. People claim Andorra are a rubbish team compared to us but in my eyes, anything can happen in football and no game in international football is easy.

Onwards and Upwards!

Ahead of Cunningham's first game in charge, the IFA have announed the twenty-three man squad to face Faroe Islands and Germany in the World Cup Qualifiers. The squad is as follows:

In his second game in charge and first competitive game in charge, Kenny Cunningham has gained yet another victory after a 2-0 win as they host Faroe Islands. Two second half goals from striker Shane Long and substitute James McClean was enough to defeat the low ranked nation.

Lineup: (4-2-3-1)
Randolph,Coleman,O'Shea,St Ledger,Ward,Whelan,McCarthy,Keane,Cox,Buckley,Long

Subs:
Forde
Chambers
Gibson
Doyle(for Long)
Dunne
McClean(for Buckley)
Walters
O'Brien
McCann
Pearce,
McGeady
Westwood

Goalscorers:
Shane Long (77)
James McClean (90+1)

Bookings:
Whelan (8)
Coleman (57)
Eli Hojgaard (66)

Cunningham's Notes:
Another very solid performance from the boys today, we dominated the game with 63% possession, 8 shots on target, they got none which again shows our great defensive work but we have Germany in a few days time and that we be test but we will put our all into it.

Onwards and Upwards

very interesting story. all these national teams stories are making me want to start one alomgside my everton story.

@ranfurlyfcYes, since my Ireland and the England story started they have became popular with a Holland one and a Scotland one around. Thanks for the comment, nice to know you're following!

2014-03-05 21:56#164078 FM-LD : @ranfurlyfcYes, since my Ireland and the England story started they have became popular with a Holland one and a Scotland one around. Thanks for the comment, nice to know you're following!

Hate to burst your bubble but both the two England stories and the Scotland story started before yours

Save and Database issues

Hey FMscouters,

Sadly, I have had an issue with the database, meaning the other national teams were using automatically generated players which made the save unrelistic so that put doubt into my mind.

Then a few days later I discovered that both the save and the backup save had corrupted and therefore I will have to end a story I really started to enjoy.

My new story will be with a Conference side (Skrill Premier) but not Barnet because I have already done a story on that.

Thanks for your continued support.

FM-LD