Building belief, creating confidence, it's amazing what a convincing win can do for an emerging team; securing a 3-0 competitive victory is good for the soul of an international side.
"Hitting our peak", declared Jayson Molumby, "confidence is really high all the time," beamed Matt Doherty, "the confidence out there is as high as I've ever seen it in an Irish team," chirped Scott Hogan; all week we have heard the players talking about everything being in place to fulfil their potential and achieve the goal of qualifying for Euro 2024.
No longer is it left to the manager to attempt to explain what his side is hoping to achieve, but now Stephen Kenny and his squad can point to performances over the past 12 months against Portugal, Serbia, Belgium, with the convincing victory over Scotland proof that the potential is there, and the results are starting to present themselves.
The latest edition of the UEFA Nations League comes to a close over the next four days, with Ireland looking to build on back-to-back impressive performances in June with the aforementioned convincing victory over the Scots followed up by a brave and bold away day against Ukraine, where the teams shared the spoils.
Ireland arrive at the iconic Hampden Park in Glasgow to take on Steve Clarke’s Scottish side, who will be expecting for a major response to their Dublin performance, looking a mere shadow of the side that qualified for the last European championships.
In truth, it was a summer to forget for the Scots, who arrived across the Irish Sea with the wind well and truly knocked out of their sails as a result of their World Cup play-off heartbreak, losing their semi-final to Ukraine.
But to their credit, they shook off the shackles of that Dublin defeat
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