Kenny Cunningham says Heimir Hallgrimsson got approach to taking over Ireland wrong

Kenny Cunningham says Heimir Hallgrimsson got it wrong this week in allowing John O'Shea and Paddy McCarthy to take leading roles with the preparation of the Ireland team.

The Boys in Green face Greece tomorrow in the Nations League following on from Saturday's 2-0 defeat to England in the same competition.

The loss to the Three Lions was Hallgrimsson's first game in charge but he had made clear beforehand that O'Shea and McCarthy would be helping him out more than would be considered usual with a management team.

This was owing to his relatively recent appointment to the role, and the fact that he took the job after Ireland's last games in June.

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Hallgrimsson reaffirmed the fact that O'Shea and McCarthy would be doing much of the heavy lifting for the Greek encounter, with former Irish defender O'Shea taking on media duties this morning.

For Cunningham, who was talking on RTÉ's Drivetime programme, the situation should never have got this far.

"It's a mistake, this week, in terms of how they've handled it, the management team," he said.

"I was really looking forward to these two games, in particular the manager; how he saw things, how he was going to change his tactical set up.

"We were all interested in how he was going to shake things up. It was a big disappointment to hear that he had handed that responsibility to John and Paddy McCarthy.

"I thought it was very unusual, I was really scratching my head. They had four or five days lead up to this game and in international