Stephen Kenny values Ireland momentum

Stephen Kenny believes that the momentum that his team are building helps to offer an understanding of the manager's new approach to international football.

Seven games unbeaten now for this Republic of Ireland side, as Kenny’s team are starting to get the recognition and respect that was evidently lacking throughout the opening ten games of the new regime.

The unbeaten run stretches back to that last-gasp defeat to Portugal in September, and includes impressive performances against Portugal, Serbia and now Belgium, while also including high-scoring victories against some lesser ranked sides.

And onwards for the 2022 calendar ahead, which begins with another home fixture against Lithuania on Tuesday night.

Kenny is building a team to compete in the next edition of the relatively recent Nations League, which sees Ireland take on Scotland, Armenia and Ukraine, home and away, in June and then into September.

The manager is then hoping that a successful Nations League campaign with then take his side into the important 2023 campaign, which will include the qualifying games ahead of Euro 2024.

"How much value do I place on it?" pondered the manager, when asked about how important momentum was to him.

"Well it's better to have positive results than negative, but it’s good to have good performances like that, for sure. It reinforces the message that we’re giving and people see you’re getting success from that.

"It reinforces belief and that can be powerful when you do that, when you play against top-class international players."

"It’s a tough group with Scotland and Ukraine, but we’re looking to improve all of the time, we’re getting better and we’re building a squad and we want to try to do ourselves justice in that."

And following the