Celtic duo on the brink

After two years in the spotlight destiny awaits Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane tonight as Ireland take on Bosnia for a place in the finals of the European Championships.

Keane has rarely been out of the headlines, rarely has an assistant manager generated so much publicity with O’Neill regularly called on to douse down controversies stemming from his straight talking assistant.

Steve Walford and Steve Guppy make up O’Neill’s backroom team but it’s the words of the former Manchester United and Celtic midfielder that has been centre stage since the unlikely couple were announced as the new management team in November 2013.

After a challenging qualifying group that required a storming finale to take third place from Scotland Friday’s 1-1 draw in Bosnia puts Ireland in the driving seat to claim one of the final places for France next summer.

After being sacked by Sunderland it looked like O’Neill may have left the management business but at 63 years of age he is on the brink of a new challenge on the international stage.

“Obviously, it would be terrific if we could do it, but I have to be very, very mindful of the fact that we are a long way away from doing that,” he explained looking forward to tonight’s match.

“We have to put things into perspective: Bosnia are capable of scoring, they could wipe that advantage, that away goal that we have within minutes of the game, and then suddenly they are on the front foot.

“If we think that we can keep them out for 90 minutes and camp ourselves just outside our own penalty area, that would be a recipe for disaster.

“We have to consider being really on the front foot, genuinely, and going and trying to win this game, and that’s it. If you’d thought that we’d have to win in the Aviva for the final time, you probably would have taken that.”

Jon Walters is likely to replace Daryl Murphy in the Ireland attack with Shane Long a likely substitute after missing Friday’s match through injury.