IF LAST NIGHT was a tale of two halves — one in which Ireland showed glimpses of definite promise, the other in which they were punished by Serbia for sloppy defending — the players were reluctant to read too much into either extreme.
The positives tempered the negatives, and vice versa, even for Shane Long who gave Ireland the lead with his 11th international goal but left the Aviva Stadium ruing the two chances he missed.
Nobody wanted to dwell too much on the first defeat of the Martin O’Neill era, preferring to look forward to the future instead.
“The manager spoke inside afterwards about how goals can sometimes change the way a game is going,” Stephen Ward said.
“In that first half we looked quite comfortable to be honest, other than the chances that they had from set pieces which we know that we should deal with better.
I think on the whole we pressed them high up the pitch and got a lot of joy.
“It was unfortunate that we couldn’t go a bit further ahead because it would have been a different game then. They’re an experienced side and when they got their lead, they killed the game a bit.”
“We’re still a team in transition,” he added. “We can do better all over the pitch.
“We created a lot of chances, we could have scored a few more, and the goals were definitely avoidable so there are pluses and minuses to come from the game.
“I’m sure it will give the manager a lot to think about over the next few months coming into the summer games.”
“It’s a learning curve and we’re still learning,” James McCarthy said.
“The gaffer has come in and he’s setting his things up.
In the first half we did really well but in the second half, we switched off for the first 10 or 15 minutes and conceded two sloppy, poor goals.
One of the strengths of Ireland’s performance was the manner in which they limited the visitors in the first half, restricting them to a handful of set piece chances while Wes Hoolahan tried to pick holes at the other end for Long to exploit.
The game was turned on its head in the 15 minutes following the restart as McCarthy knocked the ball into his own net and then Filip Dordevic pounced for what would be the winning goal.
“They’re probably one of the best sides I’ve seen at set pieces,” goalkeeper David Forde said.
“They’ve got a lot going, they’re very creative and they’re very aggressive attacking the ball.
That’s one of their biggest strengths but we didn’t concede from a set play. I thought that could have been the difference today but it was two poor goals that we gave away so that was probably more disappointing.
O’Neill spoke earlier this week about how the onus would be on Ireland as the home team to attack and entertain, and Hoolahan’s man-of-the-match performance in the playmaking role as well as flashes from James McClean coming off his wing fitted that bill.
But with some tough tests awaiting in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, not least from Germany, he will have been pleased by his players’ work off the ball, especially in the first half.
“More of the emphasis is on closing down and getting in teams’ faces,” Ward explained, “because a lot of the teams we’re going to play are very comfortable in possession and that’s when they can hurt you. I thought we did that really well tonight, especially in the first half.
“We won the ball back a lot higher up the pitch than maybe we have done in recent games and it means that you’re starting your attack a lot closer to their goal than if you’re just winning it in your third of the pitch.
“That’s been a real emphasis this week and I thought we did that fairly well for 50, 60 minutes. Once they got the two goals, it changed the game and that’s unfortunate.”
