Ex-Hibs defender blasts Martin O'Neill's Republic of Ireland management

Former Hibs defender Matt Doherty has slammed Martin O'Neill's approach to coaching, barely a day after the ex-Celtic manager stepped down from his role as Republic of Ireland manager.

Matt Doherty takes on Ben Davies of Wales in the UEFA Nations League. Picture: Getty Images

Wolves defender Doherty, who spent half a season on loan at Easter Road in 2012, was speaking about his experiences with the national team on Hugh Cahill’s Game On show on RTE2, and suggested that O’Neill’s training methods left a lot to be desire.

“When you played with Ireland, you didn’t really have that much coaching,” Doherty revealed.

“It was more go and play a little five-a-side game or an eleven-a-side game. And then that would be it.

“So you could lead all the way up to a game, maybe the day before, and you would do a few set-pieces here and there.

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“And then you would go into a game and you were thinking to yourself, ‘what shape are we going to play?’

“You’d have a few players thinking, ‘We are going to play this shape’ or you might have someone else thinking ‘I think it might be this one’.

“You can’t really have that, especially at international football - people not really sure what their role is the next day.”

Doherty has played five times for the Republic, featuring against Turkey, France, Poland, Denmark and Wales.