O'Neill warns Kenny: 'You have to win matches'

Former Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill has warned Stephen Kenny that winning is the name of the game after the Boys in Green suffered back-to-back defeats in the UEFA Nations League.

A 1-0 loss to Armenia last Saturday was followed by Wednesday's 1-0 reversal against Ukraine. It's cranked up the pressure on Kenny again after an eight-game unbeaten run had raised optimism.

Ireland host Scotland on Saturday in desperate need of a result, and O'Neill - who departed the Irish set-up back in 2018 - said questions have to be asked if their malaise continues.

"The Armenia game was a big, big setback," he told the Scottish edition of The Times.

"Sometimes you get a couple of results in matches against sides who are not in the top 80 - teams like Andorra and Lithuania. You can start to get a false impression of where you are.

"Then you travel to Armenia fully expecting to win and get off to a bad start; it’s a major setback for them. I suppose a couple of years into Stephen’s (Kenny) reign, you’d have to ask (questions about their progress).

"If his remit was to rebuild an Irish side and get time to do that then that’s fine. But in international football you still have to win football matches."

O'Neill led Ireland to the Euros in 2016 but his reign unravelled after a 5-1 home defeat to Denmark in the 2018 World Cup play-offs.

The Derryman departed a year after that disastrous night, along with his No 2 Roy Keane.

Reflecting on the quality he had at his disposal during that time, O'Neill added: "When I was managing the Republic, Robbie (Keane) was ending his career.

"He was about 34 and just couldn’t do it. He could maybe play and score a hat-trick against Gibraltar but against the bigger sides he wouldn’t be able to do what he