MARTIN O’NEILL TRIED to focus on the positives after Ireland suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Scotland tonight.
The Boys in Green were ultimately overcame by a moment of magic from Scottish winger Shaun Maloney, before Ireland went close late on after a headed effort came off the cross bar.
And while Scotland prevailed, O’Neill told RTÉ that had a late equaliser been secured, it would have been deserved.
“It was called a Derby game before and that’s probably how it panned out. I felt we were dealing with things reasonably well and the goal’s naturally a disappointment to us.
“It was a chance [at the end] and I honestly feel we would have deserved to have got it. I didn’t think Scotland created a whole deal in the game, and for the home side, I thought the onus was on them to attack.
“When the goal came, we were under a little bit of pressure, but not unduly.”
Asked if Ireland could have passed the ball more, O’Neill felt the unique nature of the fixture stopped that from happening.
“It was a frenetic game. You’d have to ask Scotland the same thing. We attempted to be as strong as we possibly could. We played two up and tried to go for the game. There are certain games where it’s very difficult to get it down. None of the two sides were able to do that given the frenetic conditions, but when we did get it down, we caused them some problems.”
O’Neill also lamented Ireland’s sloppy marking for Maloney’s decisive goal.
“Of course we’re disappointed and we should have seen the danger — the third man was always spare for them.
“We particularly can’t afford to lose [injured] players, but we had a team out there who were good enough to win the game.
“We’re not out of this, we have seven points, the same as Scotland, and we have four of our next five matches at home. Regardless of the result tonight, everything will depend on 2015.”
Man-of-the-match Jon Walters was similarly downbeat, echoing O’Neill’s view that there wasn’t much between the sides.
“Everyone’s pretty low. Fine margins have settled the game and set pieces have cost us, but we got to pick ourselves up. We have seven points after three tough away games, but we’ve got Poland in March, and we’ll have to pick ourselves up for that.
“They’re the type of games where atmosphere and battle [is key] and they’ve won it. We’re by no means out of it and it’ll come down to our home games I think.”
Martin O’Neill: “Ireland deserved a draw.”
Everyone else: “No we didnt”
Sorry Martin but we were terrible and the Scots put us away with a quality goal!
Didn’t deserve a draw!
We got what we deserved, nothing.
Don’t know what game u were looking at martin
Crap
Haha a draw me ar$ehol&..we deserve nothing playing long ball hit and hope football
Bayern Munich deserved to win the 99 and 2012 champions league finals. You don’t always get what you deserve.
But we didnt deserve anything!
As bad as it sounds a loss tonight could be good to stop the team/media getting ahead of themselves and piling expectation on the team.
I think MON’s aftermatch comments are quite telling. Expecting that Scotland might have attacked more as the home side and that he was countering this as the reason he decided to go with Long, thinking we would be able to break more out of our half. It was interesting to listen to the pre-match build-up on SKY SPORTS, and hear the approaches of both managers when interviewed. Strachan wasn’t in the least bit concerned with what Ireland’s gameplan might be, only that Scotland played with the approach they showed throughout this group so far. On the other hand, MON seemed to approach the game based on how he though Scotland were going to play at home and picked a side to counter that. MON is a great manager and tactical thinker of the game, but this was one example when he set the team up with one rigid approach and it badly backfired. It worked against Georgia, because we had more possession and freedom to play. We got away with it against Germany. But I think it is too easy to gloss over the reality that MON tried to out-think Strachan and Scotland.
Suggesting we should have deserved a draw, because it was a derby-styled match, is ignoring the fact that many Irish players underperformed, and what ultimately settled the day was a pretty piece of set-play creativity by Scotland in an otherwise ugly but frenetic match.
Main of the match Jon Walters……Christ
**man of the match
Another manager of the national team who refuses to let players pass the ball. All throughout his managerial career O’neill has always played long direct ball up to big lumps. #crazygang
Trappatoni with Glasses !
“In all fairness” it was terrible to watch. Could have been 3 down by half time. No cohesion or leadership on the field. Can anyone tell me why didn’t John O Shea play…again..
In all ” Fairity” we was stuffed..
O’ Shea was playing…
I’d prefer to watch Ireland lose while at least trying to play football. Last night was humiliating and also offered clarity that O Neill might be better suited to GAA management
What game was Martin O’Neill watching to come out with such a comment. Observation skills……so where do we go from here ??
Played for a draw but didn’t deserve it.