DEAD MAN WALKING?

Kenny clings to power.. but Vera row might buy him time

- PAUL O'HEHIR

HAS the fallout from Vera Pauw's departure inadvertently bought Stephen Kenny time as the senior men's manager? 

Would an imageconscious FAI have the stomach to pull the trigger on a second senior manager so soon? One succession race is underway but juggling two would be quite the trick.

And how would the optics be received for an organisation that has gone three years without a lead sponsor for the men's team? Results will ultimately dictate that and, for now, it's a hypothetical question until Sunday night at least.

And Kenny can certainly help himself by delivering in these games against starstudded France and Holland.

But the chain of events that have unfolded at Abbottstown since the women's World Cup, and the publicity it has garnered, may have moved the goalposts a little, too. Two games in four days against heavy hitters France and Holland will make or break Ireland's quest for automatic qualification.

That much we knew already.

If this team is serious about getting back in the hunt for a top two finish they must win one of them and, ideally, nab a result in the other.