Martin O'Neill didn’t mince his words standing on the side of the Hampden Park pitch as Ireland crash-landed on Saturday night.
The former Boys in Green manager has often highlighted Stephen Kenny’s need to marry performances with results.
It’s a view shared by many of course, and even his most ardent supporters will acknowledge that much by now.
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If the last two-and-a-half years were about trying to convince a sceptical public that he was the right man for the job, the year ahead is about proving it.
With no margin for error in 2023, it’s all on the line.
Seven of Saturday’s starting team were 23 or under and despite the setback, Kenny’s youthful team still appears to be going in the right direction.
It just feels like we've been saying that for a long time now.
No team can be unlucky all of the time and it is concerning that they still struggle to win games against teams of roughly similar ability.
Kenny tends to launch himself into passionate defences of his record even though he has won just six of his 27 games in charge.
And at times he stands accused of portraying the statistics in a light that doesn’t always paint a true picture - and O’Neill didn’t pull any punches in that regard.
Speaking after the 2-1 defeat on Saturday, the ex-Ireland manager said: “I think in the last few games they have played pretty well.
“(But) Stephen sometimes has a bit of a selective memory. He does lose a few games and then goes back to some matches where he got a result in.
“So overall I think it is a big improvement. I thought they played exceptionally well in Dublin, it was their best performance under Stephen and absolutely right.
“They followed up with a really good performance against Ukraine and (on Saturday), for really good periods in the game, particularly in the first-half, it was excellent.”
As Ireland boss, O’Neill was never going to win any beauty contests with his direct style of play but he got Ireland to Euro 2016 and a World Cup playoff.
For now, Kenny can only look enviously at that achievement as he strives to reach Euro 2024 himself, the qualifying campaign for which will determine his longevity in this role.
Kenny will be under ferocious pressure if Ireland are still struggling to beat teams of a similar level in the early parts of that campaign.
O’Neill must also feel that too much is made of this idea that Kenny’s team plays champagne football when, in fact, he too can adopt a more pragmatic approach.
O’Neill said: “What they have now is a little bit of pace up front and they can go direct because (Gavin Bazunu) kicked the ball long almost every single time.
“So they have decided this is what they might do. But overall I think there is a vast improvement in the team from maybe the early part of June.”
That may be so, but the sobering reality is that Ireland are in a Nations League relegation battle with Armenia at Aviva Stadium tomorrow.
Should they lose to the group minnows for the second time in three months, Ireland will be relegated to League C.
Kenny has settled on his squad now and knows his best team as the youngsters he has blooded are starting to mature at this level.
Putting it up to heavy hitters like Belgium and Portugal is well and good, but all the goodness is drained when you fail to follow up in your ‘winnable games’.
Tomorrow, Ireland must produce a convincing display that leaves nobody in any doubt that this team is progressing.
June’s 3-0 win over Scotland wasn’t enough in isolation to herald a new dawn, but nor should Saturday’s defeat to the same opponents signal any major cause for panic.
There were encouraging aspects to the performance and even Liam Brady, a Kenny sceptic from the outset, saw enough to be bullish about the Euro 2024 bid.
But it’s not a universally held opinion, of course. And ex-Ireland defender Damien Delaney addressed some of those concerns on TV.
“I wouldn’t be confident,” he said of Ireland’s Euro 2024 qualification hopes.
“At the moment we’re playing teams around us - Ukraine are very similar, Scotland are very similar to us and we seem to be coming out on the wrong side of them.
“I’m not going to get carried away and say it was a wonderful performance but at some point there has to be accountability.”
Delaney, in his role as TV pundit, continued: “Stephen can cherry pick any statistic he wants, blooding 16 players, three defeats in 16, whatever he likes.
“But it’s four points from five games and it’s a wooden spoon match against Armenia with a threat of relegation.
“At some point we have to draw a line and we need to start seeing more. Stephen is two years in the job and you look at his track record - what is it?
“Lost the play-off, finished second bottom in his first Nations League, out of the [World Cup] very, very early.
“We finished third in that group, very nearly fourth, but managed to get away with it.
“Now we finish second from bottom and when you put all of that in front of you, that’s not a good record.”
Delaney added: “How long do you keep saying ‘we’re going somewhere’. We’re in quicksand, we’re sinking.”
After a reasonably uplifting finish to June’s four games, Kenny must have felt that the state of the nation discussions on his future were finally parked.
They ought to be by now.
He has assembled a young team that is still feeling its way forward and one that will experience highs and lows, like Saturday.
Kenny said: “We have Tuesday’s game with Armenia and we have to earn the right to win that game and that’s what we’re focused on doing.
“Ukraine and Scotland are very strong. It was a tough group. We would have wanted more points than we have, we’re not denying that.
“But now is not the time for that. We just have to focus on Tuesday and make sure we are ready for Armenia.”
With November friendlies against Norway and Malta to come, Kenny has three games left this year to convince doubters that Euro 2024 isn’t just pie in the sky.
This team will get better and maybe we just expect too much but, two-and-a-half years in, and with a settled squad, it’s not unreasonable to expect a little bit more.
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