David Sneyd reports from Abbotstown

KEITH ANDREWS INSISTS the Republic of Ireland management team are not burying their heads in the sand as the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign reaches a disappointing conclusion.

An automatic spot in Group B is now out of reach after picking up just three points from their first five games, while a play-off place is highly unlikely given permutations elsewhere.

FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill confirmed last month that manager Stephen Kenny and his staff, among them assistant boss Andrews, would see out their contracts for the remainder of the campaign as well as oversee the friendly with New Zealand in November.

A review will then be led by director of football Marc Canham with recommendations made to the board.

In the meantime, Friday’s visit of Greece to Aviva Stadium is followed by an away clash with Gibraltar in Faro three days later before travelling to face the Netherlands next month.

Ireland’s fate will be sealed by then and Andrews accepts that the overriding emotions are “frustration and disappointment” due to the current state of play.

“You can’t steer away from where you are in the group, you can’t bury your head in the sand,” he said.

“The reality is we are where we are. I think you have to analyse the performances, which we are certainly big on – individual performance, team performance, preparations for each camp and in-camp – and look constantly to improve.

“I think when you look at the performances against some of the big teams – France at home, I think you’d all agree was very, very good, Holland first-half in particular, I was really impressed with how we pressed, our out-of-possession strategy, we possibly could have been a little more clinical, because 1-1 at half-time wasn’t a fair scoreline.

“And Greece, which is very prevalent in our minds as we are sat here today, was a blot on the copybook that we have to accept. We weren’t happy with our performance against Greece.”

With that FAI review imminent, Andrews admitted it’s hard not to think about what the future holds.

“I think it’s just the nature of football, to be honest. You look at contracts and the level of football that we are involved in as manager, assistant, coaching staff, it’s just a reality of where you are.

“You sign a contract and that’s the reality of it. There are permutations for if you qualify, if you don’t qualify… we won’t go into all those. But that’s the reality. The FAI in terms of what they’ve said and the statement they put out after the whirlwind of reaction to the games last month, I thought, was very fair and acceptable, just cementing exactly what was signed however long ago.

“It’s business as usual for us in terms of our preparation and certainly the first day [of training] on the grass with the players, which is where we want to be, really.”