Soccer Portal

Last night Ireland fans celebrated with elation as the boys in green reached the play offs after another successful campaign from Giovanni Trapattoni's men. Finishing second in a tight group gives the fans hope that they are still within two games of making an appearance at the European championships for the first time since 1988 in Sweden.

Ireland have contested seven play off encounters to reach a major tournament, prevailing in only one. But the sense of what could be always increases optimism and joy throughout the nation.

Red card
Seeing Roman Berezovsky receive his marching orders after the 26th minute warmed the hearts of Irish fans as a tense tie eased in difficulty. It would be wrong to suggest that Armenia gave up the fight, but the task of beating a resilient Irish side who had not conceded in nearly a year became far greater with only ten men.

It was only natural that the sending off for allegedly using his arm outside the box would dig up heartbreaking memories of Thiery Henry's infamous handball, dubbed 'the hand of frog' by the media and fans. The sending was harsh as replays suggest the ball quite clearly hit his chest and arm pit rather than his arm.

Justice
A sense of justice rallied around the Aviva stadium as Cox was thought to have perhaps controlled the ball with his hand, which was missed by the referee in the build up to the dismissal. Such fortune appears to have favoured Ireland in this instance as Armenian fans found themselves bitter and deflated at what they thought was a great perverse of justice.

Justice is a word synonymous with football fans, rightly or wrongly. An old cliché: everything evens itself out over the course of a campaign can be hard to swallow by managers and fans but it can more often than not prove to be the case. Justice and hardship however tends to be experienced strongly by the team who suffers.

But little comment will be cast over Cox's fortune last night as had his handball been spotted, Berezovsky would have remained on the pitch. The FAI would almost certainly welcome no talk of a possible replay, something which they optimistically demanded from FIFA after the play off against France, or more farcically to be included as a 33rd team.

Heartbreak
It would be difficult to suggest that the magnitude of the occasion last night, mirrors that of extra time in a play off, but Armenian hearts were undoubtedly broken last night. Despite being a man down, they arguably marched towards the dressing room at half time as the better team.

Armenia entered the tie with good form and a slick style of play that brought eleven goals in their previous three games. Ireland have struggled to retain possession against such teams before and set up to soak up such pressure.

Ireland play pragmatic, defensive football which is ugly to watch and Trapattoni, despite his reasonable success with Ireland, has not endeared himself to the Irish faithful. But his reign will continue, provided he remains on course to qualify for a major competition.

Ireland were fiercely backed by the footballing community after their heroic performance in Paris, but they are unlikely to receive the same support after the dogged way in which they saw off Armenia. The Armenian team can walk away proud of sticking to their principles and fighting bravely which will win support across Europe.

So will last nights injustice resurrect the tiresome argument for replays to aid referees in major decisions? probably not, as such decisions become part and parcel with the game. As Cox said after, "Some you get, some you don't."

Armenia will now understand the feeling Irish fans felt when they saw France line up in South Africa. The job is not done yet, but Ireland will quietly take their place in the play offs, thinking that this time they got the decision they wanted.