THE MEMORIES OF Ireland’s meeting with Montenegro at the beginning of this European U21 Championship qualifying campaign are bittersweet for Mark McGuinness.

Such was the disappointment at the manner of that early 2-1 defeat, the towering centre back’s goal is of little consolation.

“That was really disappointing. That wasn’t a great game for us. We almost got bullied there,” the Cardiff City man said, reflecting on how conceding two goals inside 10 minutes set the tone for a damaging first-half which they could not recover from.

“Then we got ourselves back into it and that probably hurt more. When you are away in these places it is never going to be easy. You go a goal down and then you get a goal back in and we could have got a point out of that. It was disappointing the way it ended.

“Some games they’re not all about tactics. They’re about getting those three points and that was probably one of them for us. I think it’s more us and our expectations. We felt that we weren’t up to it so it was more ourselves being bullied rather than them bullying us.

We just weren’t up for it. That was one game out of the whole campaign and you can see how far we have come now. We’re where we are and they’re where they are.

“Look, it’s international football,” McGuinness continued. “You are playing against good opposition and if you are not on it you will get punished and that day we got punished.

“But we have turned it around since then and got ourselves in a good position and we are on the front foot and it is all to play for now with the two games coming up.”

Montenegro visit Tallaght Stadium with Jim Crawford’s side on a three-game winning run that has given them a chance of automatic qualification.

That is dependent on Ireland following up Friday’s 3-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina by taking another three points tonight. Sweden currently top the group on goal difference and face Italy, who they are level on points with, in their final fixture on Thursday.

The Azzurri still have three games remaining, one of which will be the final game of the group with Ireland. If the young Boys in Green win tonight and the Swedes fail to take all three points that will ensure at least a play-off spot.

“We’ve always had faith in ourselves. We have a great squad,” McGuinness added. “We beat the top seed Sweden and we go again against Montenegro and Italy. We’ve got another chance against them and hopefully we can get them back.

“The way we are playing and the results we have had: we can go up against any team now.”