March 28, 2024

Martin O’Neill – Republic of Ireland Manager

martinoneillMartin O’Neill

Following the departure of Italian, Giovanni Trapattoni, from his role as Republic of Ireland manager the FAI appointed Ulsterman Martin O’Neill as his full-time replacement in November 2013. To everyone’s surprise O’Neill demanded that former Manchester United and Irish captain, Roy Keane, would be his right-hand man.

O’Neill had an impressive CV including a European Cup winners medal as a player and the management of club teams at the top level in England and Scotland. Earlier in the year he had been sacked from his position as manager of (the almost unmanageable) Sunderland so the Irish manager vacancy was a good opportunity for the 61 year old.

Martin O’Neill – Football Background

Club Playing Career

Martin O’Neill began his football career in his native Ulster playing for Distillery but after just seven first team appearances he signed for English First Division team Nottingham Forest in 1971. He also quit his law degree at Queen’s University in Belfast to take up his professional football career.

O’Neill spent most of his playing career with Forest playing under manager Brian Clough. During his ten years with Forest he enjoyed a lot of success winning the League title, the League Cup, and the European Cup.

O’Neill left Nottingham Forest in 1981 and went on to play for Norwich City, Manchester City, and Notts County.

Martin O’Neill – Playing Career with Northern Ireland

O’Neill was captain of the Northern Ireland team that qualified for the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain. Under his captaincy the Irish made it to the quarter finals beating Spain 1-0 in Valencia en route. This was a remarkable achievement for such a small footballing country. O’Neill was also part of the Northern Irish team that won the British Home Championship in 1980 and 1984.

Following a persistent knee injury O’Neill finally accepted the inevitable and retired from football in 1985 thus depriving him of the opportunity to play with Northern Ireland in successive World Cup finals, in Mexico in 1986.

Martin O’Neill – Managerial Career

Martin O’Neill began his managerial career with non-league Grantham Town. He established his management credentials by taking Wycombe Wanderers from the Football Conference to the Football League, and eventually into Division Two. Following this he went on to manage a number of other clubs in England and Scotland with varying degrees of success. The list of clubs included, Norwich City, Leicester City, Celtic, Aston Villa, and Sunderland.

Martin O’Neill – Appointment as Republic of Ireland Manager

Following the controversial reign of Giovanni Trapattoni there was something of a clamour for his replacement to be Irish or British. In the past FAI CEO John Delaney had expressed his interest in Martin O’Neill for the position of Irish manager. The fact that O’Neill was available meant that he immediately became the favourite with the bookies. Despite a somewhat protracted ‘will he – won’t he’ period Delaney finally got his man. Unfortunately for Delaney he also got Roy Keane as part of the deal. Delaney and Keane had crossed swords publicly in the past, particularly over the Saipan Incident, however O’Neill insisted that the Corkman must be on the management ticket.

Many commentators and fans wondered how long a management team of two such volatile characters, as O’Neill and Keane, could last. Both men were very strong-willed and were natural leaders, and both had captained their clubs and national teams. The then manager of Celtic, Neil Lennon summed up the thoughts of many succinctly when he said “God help the players.”. A sentiment somewhat echoed by O’Neill during his first interview following the announcement of their appointment ” I think I’m the bad cop — and I think he’s (Keane) the bad, bad cop.”. Only time would tell if the two bad cops could work effectively together.

Martin O’Neill’s Record as Irish Manager

O’Neill’s first match as manager of the Republic of Ireland was a friendly against Latvia at the Aviva Stadium on 15th November 2013. A first-half goal from Irish record goal scorer, Robbie Keane, and one a-piece from Aidan McGeady and Shane Long in the second-half gave O’Neill a winning start.

O’Neill tasted defeat as Irish manager for the first time in a home friendly against Serbia in March 2014. The Serbs scored two second half goals to secure victory.

In his first competitive match O’Neill recorded an away victory against Georgia in the opening match of the Euro 2016 qualifiers. A last minute goal from Everton’s Aiden McGeady allowed O’Neill to emulate two of his predecessors (Brian Kerr & Giovanni Trapattoni) to record a winning start to their competitive matches against the former USSR republic.

Following a roller coaster campaign, including a hugely disappointing loss to Scotland and an amazing 1-0 win against World champions Germany, Ireland finished third in the qualifying group. This meant that Ireland faced Bosnia and Herzegovina in a two match play-off to determine which team would qualify for Euro 2016 in Paris. A 3-1 aggregate victory over the two legs meant that Martin O’Neill joined Jack Charlton, Mick McCarthy and Giovanni Trapattoni in managing Ireland to qualification for a major football championship finals.

Played
Won
Drew
Lost
Goals For
Goals Against
Win Ratio
46
18
16
12
64
44
39%
Home Team
Result
Away Team Date & Venue Competition
Ireland
3:0 (1:0)
Latvia 15/11/2013 Dublin Friendly
Poland
0:0 (0:0)
Ireland 19/11/2013 Poznan Friendly
Ireland
1:2 (1:0)
Serbia 05/03/2014 Dublin Friendly
Ireland
1:2 (0:1)
Turkey 25/05/2014 Dublin Friendly
Ireland
0:0 (0:0)
Italy 31/05/2014 London Friendly
Ireland
1:1 (1:0)
Costa Rica 06/06/2014 Philadelphia Friendly
Ireland
1:5 (0:3)
Portugal 10/06/2014 New Jersey Friendly
Ireland
2:0 (1:0)
Oman 03/09/2014 Dublin Friendly
Georgia
1:2 (1:1)
Ireland 07/09/2014 Tblisi Euro 2016 Qual
Ireland
7:0 (3:0)
Gibraltar 11/10/2014 Dublin Euro 2016 Qual
Germany
1:1 (0:0)
Ireland 14/10/2014 Gelsenkirchen Euro 2016 Qual
Scotland
1:0 (0:0)
Ireland 14/11/2014 Glasgow Euro 2016 Qual
Ireland
4:1 (1:1)
USA 18/11/2014 Dublin Friendly
Ireland
1:1 (1:0)
Poland 29/03/2015 Dublin Euro 2016 Qual
Ireland
0:0 (0:0)
England 07/06/2015 Dublin Friendly
Ireland
1:1 (1:0)
Scotland 13/06/2015 Dublin Euro 2016 Qual
Gibraltar
0:4 (0:1)
Ireland 04/09/2015 Faro, Portugal Euro 2016 Qual
Ireland
1:0 (0:0)
Georgia 07/09/2015 Dublin Euro 2016 Qual
Ireland
1:0 (0:0)
Germany 08/10/2015 Dublin Euro 2016 Qual
Poland
2:1 (2:1)
Ireland 11/10/2015 Warsaw, Poland Euro 2016 Qual
Bos & Her
1:1 (0:0)
Ireland 13/11/2015 Zenica, B & H Euro 2016 PO
Ireland
2:0 (1:0)
Bos & Her 16/11/2015 Dublin Euro 2016 PO
Ireland
1:0 (1:0)
Switzerland 25/03/2016 Dublin Friendly
Ireland
2:2 (2-2)
Slovakia 29/03/2016 Dublin Friendly
Ireland
1:1 (1:0)
Holland 27/05/2016 Dublin Friendly
Ireland
1:2 (0-1)
Belarus 31/05/2016 Dublin Friendly
Ireland
1:1 (0:0)
Sweden 13/06/2016 Paris, France Euro Finals
Belgium
3:0 (0-0)
Ireland 18/06/2016 Lille, France Euro Finals
Italy
0:1 (0:0)
Ireland 22/06/2016 Lyon, France Euro Finals
France
2:1 (0-1)
Ireland 26/06/2016 Lyon, France Euro Finals
Ireland
4:0 (3-0)
Oman 31/08/2016 Dublin Friendly
Serbia
2:2 (0-1)
Ireland 05/09/2016 Belgrade, Serbia WC Qual
Ireland
1:0 (0-0)
Georgia 06/10/2016 Dublin WC Qual
Moldova
1:3 (1-1)
Ireland 09/10/2016 Chisinau, Mold’a WC Qual
Austria
0:1 (0-0)
Ireland 12/11/2016 Vienna, Austria WC Qual
Ireland
0:0 (0-0)
Wales 24/03/2017 Dublin WC Qual
Ireland
0:1 (0-1)
Iceland 28/03/2017 Dublin Friendly
Mexico
3:1 (2-0)
Ireland 01/06/2017 New Jersey, USA Friendly
Ireland
1:1 (0-1)
Austria 11/06/2017 Dublin WC Qual
Georgia
1:1 (1-1)
Ireland 02/09/2017 Tiblisi, Georgia WC Qual
Ireland
0:1 (0-0)
Serbia 05/09/2017 Dublin WC Qual
Ireland
2:0 (2-0)
Moldova 06/10/2017 Dublin WC Qual
Wales
0:1 (0-0)
Ireland 09/11/2017 Cardiff, Wales WC Qual
Denmark
0:0 (0-0)
Ireland 11/11/2017 Copenhagen WC Qual PO
Ireland
1:5 (1-2)
Denmark 14/11/2017 Dublin WC Qual PO
Turkey
1:0 (0-0)
Ireland 23/03/2018 Antalya Friendly

saipan-header

Republic of Ireland Football Managers – Irish Manager’s Records

Mick Meagan – Liam Tuohy – Sean Thomas – John Giles – Alan Kelly Snr – Eoin Hand – Jack Charlton
Jack Charlton’s Playing Style – Jack Charlton’s Appointment – Mick McCarthy – Manager Don Givens
Brian Kerr – Martin O’Neill – Stephen Staunton – Giovanni Trapattoni – Noel King

Irish Football Players

John Aldridge – George Best – Packie Bonner – Liam Brady – Shay Brennan – Noel Cantwell – Johnny Carey
Gerry Daly – Mal Donaghy – Derek Dougan – Damien Duff – Tony Dunne – Eamon Dunphy – Johnny Giles
Shay Given – Don Givens – Harry Gregg – David Healy – Ray Houghton – Denis Irwin – Pat Jennings
Robbie Keane – Robbie Keane Caps Goals – Robbie Keane Penalties Ireland – Roy Keane – Alan Kelly
Mark Lawrenson – Con Martin – Mick Martin – Kevin Moran – David McCreery – Paul McGrath
Sammy McIlroy – Jimmy Nicholl – David O’Leary – John O’Shea – Niall Quinn – Kevin Sheedy – Frank Stapleton Steve Staunton – Billy Whelan – Ronnie Whelan – Norman Whiteside

Irish Soccer Information
Irish Football Club Directory Irish Soccer Leagues Women’s Soccer in Ireland
Dublin Football Clubs Football Association of Ireland Irish Soccer Players
Dublin Football Clubs by Area Irish Football Club Websites Futsal in Ireland
Irish Soccer Managers Irish Soccer Results
Irish Football History Football Pundits
Irish Soccer Referees Republic of Ireland Managers
League of Ireland Irish Football Statistics