A number of Republic of Ireland fans have hit back at Damien Delaney over his criticism of Stephen Kenny.
The former defender, who won nine Irish caps, has been a long-time critic of Kenny's Ireland and some of the results they have picked up during his reign.
Following Tuesday's 3-2 win over Armenia, Delaney again took aim at the Ireland boss after a bizarre spell in the second half saw his side concede two goals in two minutes.
READ MORE: Richard Dunne takes aim at Stephen Kenny as he says Ireland record 'isn't good enough'
Speaking on Virgin Media, the 41-year-old said: "How many lessons have we learned? Stephen said afterwards 'it's just one of those things'. It's not just one of those things.
"When you look at his track record for the last two years, there's been several of those things. You can say quite easily lessons learned but when are they going to start learning them? When are we going to start winning games that we should win? I know we won tonight but I'm talking about the Scotland game.
"Tonight, (Ireland) should have just seen that out comfortably 2-0, 3-0. We had a whole package of clips of good Ireland play but Stephen saying it's a good performance... a performance is over 95 minutes when you take in injury-time. You can't just chop it off at 70 and restart it again at 80 and say well it was a good performance. Ten minutes is in the game. You don't just get to forget about that. That's part of the performance."
Delaney insisted these are now "seriously worrying times" for the national team and believes there are plenty of other managers that could come in and get Ireland playing an attractive brand of football.
He added: “This is a team that have three wins in 20 competitive games.
“They were in the box-seat, but their discipline and concentration went out the window.
“I mean.. Stephen Kenny doesn’t hold a patent on an Irish team playing football. There seems to be a theory out there that if we get rid of Stephen Kenny we will end up with a Sam Allardyce, and think ‘we had a go at this and we can’t go any further’.
“There are other managers that can come in and get Ireland playing football. Nothing is to be celebrated after that tonight. That is the the biggest get out of jail free card we have ever got.
“That was shambolic, how we gave up a position of superiority with the ease that we gave it up. I’m flabbergasted that was even a discussion.
“We are talking about progress and getting results, but we got one tonight by the skin of our teeth against a team ranked 92nd in the world.. Seriously worrying times.”
But a number of Ireland fans felt that Delaney's criticism was over the top.
One said: "And Damien Delaney doesn’t hold the patent on football punditry."
Another commented: "Damien Delaney is out of touch. Him and the ex-Irish pros have it out to get him because the fans were sick of the muck we had to watch when they were players. Tonight was poor, we got a win. Saturday was great, we got a draw. You can't use both against Kenny."
Someone else added: "Damien Delaney needs to step foot into the aviva and get his head round why for a wooden spoon match it was 90% full...because the actual fans back Kenny and want to watch us play football...results will come but we're no Argentina or Germany let's be realistic about or prospects."
But other Irish supporters didn't agree and said Delaney's comments were "perfectly valid".
One tweeted: "Some backlash against Damien Delaney for perfectly valid criticism."
Another message read: "As Damien Delaney just said there on Virgin, can anyone be confident of us qualifying for the Euros when we're going into the draw as third seed? If we can't dominate Armenia, how are we expecting to qualify over two teams ranked higher than us."
One other person posted: "Damien Delaney talking sense tonight after the Armenia match. Kenny simply not up to the job."
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