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"Randolph's save might...

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"Randolph's save might have just saved a lot of criticism/sack coming O'Neill's way" - Stephen Hunt

98FM
98FM

10:04 16 Oct 2018


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No Gareth Bale and no Aaron Ramsey but Wales still came to the Aviva Stadium and beat Ireland 1-0 in the UEFA Nations League.

It means Martin O'Neill's side have failed to win any of the first three games in the competition, losing to the Welsh home and away and drawing at home to Denmark, with a visit to Danish soil still to come.

We had live commentary of the game with ex-Ireland winger Stephen Hunt providing live analysis and he shared his immediate reaction at full time to Joe Molloy and Nathan Murphy.

"I've got it written down. One goal away from boos/sack," he said of the 1-0 result that could have been worse had Wales finished off a late one-on-one.

"Look, the results are not good enough. It's a results based business, international football and club football, but I think [Martin O'Neill's] saved. Randolph's save might have just saved a lot of criticism/sack coming O'Neill's way."

And Hunt reiterated that point: "I think Randolph has saved the manager his job, I genuinely do. With five minutes to go or 10 minutes to go, if that ball goes in the net, this place has a total different spin on it. Would I sack the manager? It's questionable. Where do you go? Who's available? What's the budget? That's all down to Mr [John] Delaney, for sure."

He added that Wales could have scored more towards the end but perhaps lacked the quality to completely finish the Irish team off.

And the little bit of energy showed by Ireland towards the end proved futile as Hunt continued.

"I think the adrenalin of the last five minutes that Ireland had in their half has covered up the last half hour for me," he said.

"I said it on Saturday; I hate seeing teams last ditch tackles, two vs ones, three vs ones in the last 20 minutes of the game. I really think we're in big trouble."


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