James Collins is blocked by Guram Kashia when trying to gain possession during Ireland’s stalemate against Georgia. Photo: Sportsfile

For how much longer do we tolerate Mick McCarthy? Stephen Kenny's accession to the Irish manager's job can't come soon enough. The only good thing about perhaps the most boring game in Irish football history is that it should end any notions of shafting the under 21 boss and extending the caretaker's time in the hot seat.

There's been a tacit campaign to this effect of late, with insistences that Ireland under McCarthy are an entirely different team from the one which laboured under the yoke of the dullard O'Neill.

Good old Captain Fantastic had apparently put the smile back on the face of Irish football.

Only an imbecile could have smiled after the Tedium in Tbilisi. Ireland have not been transformed under McCarthy. This was the same kind of creatively impoverished performance which typified the final days of the previous incumbent.

Ireland games against the likes of Denmark and Switzerland contain some thrills and spills as superior opposition strives to break down a packed Irish defence. But when the opposition are equally short of ideas, a nightmarish stalemate ensues.

Hardly anything happened in Tbilisi. Ireland's best chances resulted from a free-kick in the third minute and a corner in the last seconds. Imagination and creativity were conspicuous by their absence. The game seemed to last about five hours.

In Ireland's two previous matches they only began to create chances after falling behind. At 1-0 down, with the opposition dropping deep to defend in the closing stages, we had to take a few risks, built some pressure and were rewarded with a late equaliser. But with Georgia never even threatening to take the lead, Ireland stayed in their shell.

When we drew away to Georgia two years ago under O'Neill it was treated as a kind of national disgrace. This was an even worse performance and deserves to be treated just as harshly.

McCarthy gets a much easier ride than his predecessor. Yet the insistence that Ireland have changed utterly on his watch is a fantasy.

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The manager is a kind of cosplay Jack Charlton, beloved by those who think it's possible to travel back to the days when we could put 'em under pressure, give it a lash and ole ole ole all night long. Rev it up and here he goes.

It's always tempting to think that, in the words of Paul Brady, you can reach the future through the past. Our next-door neighbours have fallen for the idea in a big way. So have Mick McCarthy and his fans.

Mick is the Brexit Manager, telling us everything can be the way it used to be if we just believe.

But you change things by looking to the future rather than the past. Yesterday we had a brief, belated glimpse of what that future might be like.

Aaron Connolly's introduction in the 77th minute came much too late. He should have started. What Premier Division manager would pick James Collins ahead of Connolly?

Yesterday Collins looked exactly what he is, a journeyman striker who's spent most of his career in the lower leagues. He posed no threat, couldn't manage to hold up the ball and did not worry Georgia in the least.

Connolly, on the other hand, almost won the game off his own bat. With a minute left he pounced on a poor piece of control in the Georgia box and forced Giorgi Loria into his first serious save of the game. As injury-time began he chased a long ball, outstripped the defence and fired into the side-netting.

Given even half an hour the Galway kid would probably have won the game for Ireland. But McCarthy was too timid to risk that.

This kind of fear has bedevilled Ireland teams in recent years and it's precisely what you don't get from Stephen Kenny.

Connolly's cameo was a teaser trailer for a future when Irish teams focus on what we can do rather than fear what the opposition might be capable of. Anyone delaying Kenny's move into the top job will be committing treason against Irish football.

Because there is a better way of doing things. We have seen it from underage teams and it deserves to be tried at senior level. How many more matches like last night do you want to see? Quips notwithstanding, McCarthy is firmly in the mould of the dour and old-fashioned Football Man, at one with Allardyce, Pulis and Pardew. Ireland deserves better. You deserve better.

Georgia have always been an oddity. Between the two penalty boxes they can look an excellent team. But feebleness in the opposition area and shakiness inside their own mean that nine times out of ten Ireland have found a way to beat them. This should have been a routine victory.

Instead, Ireland played the same way as they'll play in Geneva, falling back and defending like a non-league team hoping to gain a lucrative FA Cup replay against top-flight opposition.

This approach will be understandable against Switzerland but was inexcusable against a side ranked 63 places below us in the world rankings.

Denmark were also held by Georgia but they had 61% of the possession, took 12 shots and forced nine corners. Our corresponding figures were 44%, seven and three. The Danes tried to win in Tbilisi, Ireland hung on and hoped to nick something from a set-piece.

The story has been the same under Trappatoni, under O'Neill and under McCarthy. Sometimes the plan works but when it doesn't the vista is appalling. The only thing Ireland have to offer their fans is a good result. In the absence of that, there's nothing to enjoy.

We loved taking offence when Denmark and Switzerland suggested our football might be less than Brazilian in nature.

But there is no getting away from it - we really are one of the most boring teams on the planet.

It's time for a change.

Sunday Indo Sport