Epress.am News from Armenia
Fulham FC defender Stephen Kelly is confident that Ireland can make the 8,000 km round trip to Yerevan this week and bring home a haul of three points, reports Ireland’s Herald.
Ireland’s away form in qualifying games is poor, the record in the old eastern bloc even worse, but Kelly, who hopes to get the nod at full back from Giovanni Trapattoni and earn his 19th cap on Friday, says he’s more that capable of dealing with any pressure in Yerevan.
“It’s not easy to play in places like Armenia, I got a taste for that in the European run with Fulham last season,” Kelly told the Herald.
“We played in places like Perm in Russia, Donetsk in Ukraine, Sofia in Bulgaria, Vetra in Lithuania, we went there and came away with good results. I know what to expect now for this game, I know what it’s like to have a six-hour or seven-hour flight, play in a hostile place with a small stadium and a vocal crowd.
“I’d never heard of Perm or Vetra before but you just had to go there and get the result. When we arrived in Perm for the game there was a big crowd there waiting for us, all dressed in black with sickles in their hands, banners saying Rest In Peace, it was crazy stuff. It was 12 at night when we were coming off the bus and here you basically had a lynch mob waiting for us. Hopefully it won’t be like that in Armenia, but we will be prepared right for the trip and the game.
“I have experience of that and I will use that if picked on Friday. I’ve played in some tough places with the Irish team too, I played in Bratislava and Prague in the Euro campaign, I played in Sofia in the last one, and they are very hard places to go,” added Kelly.
“I know some fans will look at Armenia and think it’s a handy three points for us, or at least a game we’re expected to win, but we have to be completely on our game to get a result.
“I think we need to win the game if we’re serious about winning the group, for us to put our stamp on the group and show that we’re serious we need to be winning games like this. We have to aim for six points from the first two matches, make a statement to the likes of Russia and Slovakia that we are a team to be afraid of.
“Our away record with Ireland isn’t great, we have often found it difficult away from home. I know that from the games I played in the group under Steve Staunton, we lost in Prague and drew in Slovakia. But there is a different mentality in the team now, the personnel has changed a good bit.
“So somewhere like Armenia is a hard place to get a result, but the way we are set up now — defensively solid and good going forward — I think we can go there and get the win,” said Kelly.