Gavin Cooney reports from Hampden Park

STEPHEN KENNY INSISTS there is more to come from his “evolving” Irish team on the eve of their Nations League clash with Scotland at Hampden Park. 

Kenny’s side lost their opening two Nations League games against Armenia and Ukraine in June, but bounced back with a 3-0 win at home to Scotland before then drawing 1-1 against Ukraine in Poland. 

“We feel we can improve for sure, we are constantly looking to improve, we feel we can improve on aspects of our performance against Scotland”, said Kenny at his pre-match press conference. “We have to continue to strive to improve. We’re not at our full potential, no, we’re not.

“Scotland had a good win the other night, we respect that. They played well. We played well in our last few games and from our point of view, with this Irish team, It’s a new Ireland, a new Irish team, a new identity. We’ve given over 16 players an international debut in the space of 18 months. The style of play is what the Irish public is connecting with in a major way.

“There’s a mixture of youth and experience, we’ve had to suffer a little bit in in terms of some results in the rebuilding. 44,000 sold for the game against Armenia on Tuesday already, for a game that’s not a Euro qualifier or World Cup qualifier: that gives you an indication of the level of support for the team.

“People are excited by the team. The crowd have been extremely passionate, you would have felt that in the Scotland game in the Aviva. This will be our biggest away support, since we’ve come in, we had Covid issues and we had away fans at some matches but this will be our biggest away support. From that point of view, it’s a special game.” 

The good win Kenny refers to was Scotland’s 3-0 hammering of Ukraine on Wednesday, a result which means Scotland will top the group if they beat Ukraine in their final game next Tuesday, regardless of their result against Ireland tomorrow. 

The Scottish players have openly talked about avenging that defeat at Hampden Park tomorrow night, but Kenny insists his side can improve from that performance themselves. 

“We are not dwelling on that game”, said Kenny. “We have to move on from that game. It’s a new challenge.” 

Scotland switched to a back four in midweek for the first time in three years, a tactical switch that had a major effect. Kenny is unworried as to how Steve Clarke decides to set up tomorrow night. 

“I’ve really no idea”, said Kenny when asked how he expects his opponents to line-up. “Scotland consistently played in a certain way, and they have the ability to change shape but with good players you always have the opportunity to do that. It is immaterial for us. For us, we have to focus on ourselves and make sure we’re right, that’s what we are firmly focused on.

“You have to adapt for sure, you can’t play the same way all the time. You have to adapt to your opponent, that’s the nature of football, it’s always been that way. We have the ability to adapt and that’s what we have to show.” 

The good news for Ireland is that they have no fresh injury concerns ahead of this game, meaning the only injury of the window so far has been Andrew Omobamidele’s withdrawal at the start of the week. Of some concern is a lack of match minutes for some established players: none of Matt Doherty, Seamus Coleman and Shane Duffy have started a league game this season. 

“You want your players to play every week, there’s no substitute for that, for playing consistently. We don’t live in a perfect world and sometimes some of our players don’t get selected and we’ll probably have more players consistently playing than we’ve had previously. We’ve had less players playing in the Premier League than we did previously. More are playing regularly, you can never be 100pc certain, if that’s the question. But I have no doubts, I’ve seen everyone train this week, we’ll be very strong going into tomorrow.”