Keith Andrews Has No Regrets Over 'Vitriolic' Martin O'Neill Criticism

Keith Andrews finds himself in the biggest job of his young coaching career after landing the top job with Brentford in the Premier League.

Andrews immediately emerged as a contender for the role in the wake of the departure of Thomas Frank - who left The Bees for Tottenham Hotspur.

He worked under Frank with the London club after joining as a set-piece coach last summer and played his part as the club finished in the top-half of the Premier League table despite a tricky start to the season.

His appointment from left-field drew a widespread reaction, including from Martin O'Neill who alluded to what he deemed to be 'vitriolic' criticism from Andrews when he was in charge of Ireland.

"The irony is when I was manager of the Republic of Ireland he was a particularly vitriolic critic of mine at the time," O'Neill said on talkSPORT.

He was really dead against me trying to use set-pieces to try to win games. "The irony is he becomes the set-piece coach. Really I say good luck to him. Brentford have decided, if it is the case, that he should get it. "I hope he does get it because then he will realise what management is all about."

Andrews was critical of O'Neill during his stint as a pundit during the end of the veteran manager's reign.

Keith Andrews responds to Martin O'Neill criticism

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The new Brentford boss, 45, has now responded to O'Neill's remarks when facing the media in the wake of his managerial appointment.

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The Dubliner admitted that his 'conscience is clean' regarding his criticism of O'Neill's tactics post Euro 2016.

'My conscience would be very clean in terms of where that came from," Andrews said. “Ireland was the only thing I supported as a kid growing up. I've already touched on it. "Very patriotic, very passionate, very proud to be sat here as an IrishPremier Leaguemanager. “So it came from, again, going back to the way I work, I studied the team, gave myopinion, and invariably you can't please people all of the time. "And occasionally you do upset people, yeah, for sure."

Safe to say Andrews does not regret his comments.

He most notably took aim at O'Neill following Ireland's 2018 defeat to Wales in Dublin, where he took issue with the then head coach lameting the lack of goalscoring threat following Robbie Keane's retirement.

"Before Robbie Keane came along top goalscorers got 20 goals in their international careers. Robbie Keane was a one-off," he said in the Sky Sports studio.

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"You have to stop moaning about what you have and try to create a team spirit, because the more they keep hearing that what's it going to do for their confidence.

"You saw them at the end, they were on the floor, their morale is rock-bottom, it's been one of the worst years in recent memory for Irish football."

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