Republic of Ireland win ugly but Robbie Brady injury mars result against Georgia

This was never going to be one for the purists and there were times, especially in the first half, when the Republic of Ireland seemed incapable of stringing more than two passes together. However, Séamus Coleman’s first international goal, on his 40th appearance, was sufficient to earn Martin O’Neill’s team their opening win of the qualifying campaign against a battling Georgia.

Nonetheless, their celebrations were tempered because of a serious head injury sustained by Robbie Brady 15 minutes from time that left the Norwich City player unconscious. He was carried off in a neck brace and wearing an oxygen mask after rising to head a pass from Shane Long only to collide ferociously with Solomon Kverkvelia, who was left bloodied but continued with significant bandaging.

Brady regained consciousness quickly but was taken to hospital for further examination. “The doctors are pleased with him,” O’Neill said. “I haven’t had a chance to see him but he’s obviously gone off [to hospital] and I hope he will be fine. He’s as brave as a lion, great courage obviously and a fine player.”

He is likely to miss Sunday’s trip to Moldova, though, meaning O’Neill will have to shuffle his midfield considerably because Jeff Hendrick also picked up a one-game suspension for a second-half booking. Georgia ended up with 56% possession, an unedifying statistic for the hosts, and had a number of chances. O’Neill was satisfied with the result – leaving them tied on four points with Wales, Austria and Serbia – but admitted the performance was poor.

“We were very ordinary in the first half, we couldn’t get close enough to them,” he said. “Particularly playing here we had to get on the front foot but we couldn’t get any momentum going. They passed it well and I was pleased we were still level at half-time.”

Ireland did improve in the second half but there was never a period of sustained dominance. They lacked composure throughout but most surprising of all was a deficit in their work rate early on. Too often long balls were played hopelessly forward but the absence of any harrying and chasing, a commodity they have always had in spades, was puzzling.

Going back a decade, Georgia’s only competitive away win came against Gibraltar and from the outset it was abundantly clear that their plan was to sit back and frustrate. Their lone forward Levan Mchedlidze dropped into his own half quite often, yet on the rare occasions they decided to venture forward the visitors created the only noteworthy chances of the opening 45 minutes.

Seventeen minutes in Valeri Qazaishvili turned near the penalty spot and fired narrowly wide to the left of Darren Randolph’s goal, while the midfielder won a corner with a deflected effort off James McCarthy two minutes later.

Then Georgia hit the woodwork twice. Mchedlidze struck the bar from eight yards and Guram Kashia’s follow-up header from a tight angle beat Randolph but came back off the far post. Ireland’s meagre response was a Jonathan Walters hook over the bar six minutes before the break after James McClean knocked the ball on before Mchedlidze forced Randolph to turn a stinging shot around his right-hand post.

That was the game’s first shot on target, although the intensity at least improved after the interval.

Still, even Coleman’s goal was ugly, as he bundled the ball in from a yard after some catastrophic Georgia defending. The right-back’s run from the touchline into the area, turning Giorgi Navalovski inside out twice, was impressive but upon dribbling goalwards he was met by a limp Kashia challenge. The ball deflected off the Georgia captain and then off Walters before breaking to Coleman, who rolled it in with the goalkeeper, Giorgi Loria, gone walkabout.

In search of a second, McClean headed a Walters cross past Loria two minutes later only to be correctly flagged for offside. McClean went close again on 65 minutes when Loria failed to catch his swirling shot and almost dropped it into his own net. He unconvincingly stopped it at the second time of asking.

After Brady’s injury, McClean hit the bar with a close-range header and while Georgia piled forward during seven minutes of injury time, an equaliser never seemed likely.

Meanwhile, O’Neill has played down rumours of Harry Arter switching to England. The Bournemouth midfielder has played in two friendlies for Ireland but has not appeared in a competitive fixture, so would be still allowed to switch to his country of birth. “It’s news to me,” O’Neill said. “He’s obviously not played a competitive game for us but the choice is entirely up to the player.”