Republic of Ireland ‘bottom of the pile’ of Home Nations teams, says Tony Cascarino as goal drought goes on

Republic of Ireland have become one of the easiest teams to beat in Europe, according to former striker Tony Cascarino.

Stephen Kenny’s side suffered their latest defeat this week as they were thumped 3-0 by England at Wembley Stadium – the Three Lions’ first win over the Irish since 1985.

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But the loss also extended Ireland’s miserable goalless run to five games – their longest run without scoring for 24 years.

Former Shamrock Rovers boss Kenny is still waiting for his first victory since replacing Mick McCarthy as manager back in April, having failed to guide the nation to Euro 2020.

Incredibly, Ireland’s last win came in a friendly against New Zealand exactly 12 months ago – on November 14 2019 – and that’s their only victory from their last ten games in all competitions.

And after this week’s embarrassing defeat to England’s second string, Cascarino believes the Republic of Ireland team are now ‘bottom of the pile’ of all the Home Nations sides.

Speaking on the Weekend Sports Breakfast, the former Ireland striker said: “In my opinion, we’ve gone from being the team that always rubs shoulders with England as being the best team from these shores, to being nowhere near that now.

“We’re probably poorer than Northern Ireland, definitely poorer than Wales and definitely poorer than Scotland, by a long way. We’re bottom of the pile!

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“In our Nations League group we’ve got Wales, Finland and Bulgaria – we’ve got two points from four games, Wales have got TEN!

“Finland have got nine points, they beat us in our last game and I watched it at the Aviva Stadium and we were poor. We’re doing things I hate to see.

“This idea of ‘playing football’, I think some managers, and I think Steven Kelly is guilty of this, you play football but forget to do the ugly side of it, and the very best teams don’t. They close you down, they make it hard for you.

“I’m watching Ireland and, yes they’ve had loads of injuries and they’ve had problems with COVID-19, but when you don’t close opposition down in their half of the pitch, and you just stand off them, you become so easy to play against.

“We have gone from one of the hardest teams in Europe to play against, to becoming one of the easiest!”