Managers' Reaction: No happy tunes in the bandroom. No cancans. No minuets. A sour few days for Brian Kerr came to a bad end. He came with heavy steps and defiant face. You could see the hurt.

The one vow which was made, the bottom line which was signed onto was that Ireland wouldn't get beaten last night. A draw would keep the oxygen flowing. A defeat would send the monitors flashing. We were on red last night.

As times get harder you can time Brian Kerr's press conferences using an egg timer. Last night's questions and answers lasted for four minutes and eight seconds and that grim intercourse was unleavened by any moments of wit or suggestions of rapprochement with the media.

"I'm disappointed," he said frankly, "obviously I'm hugely disappointed. We wanted to get to the World Cup finals. It's a bit harder now. We have two games left. That give us a chance."

It wasn't an occasion or even an opportunity for the hard questions but Ireland's lack of creativity came back to haunt them last night. Generally breaking even with the vaunted French around the field, a singular moment of genius, which the Irish looked incapable of ever mimicking, separated the sides in the end. When the going gets tough . . .

"As for the match tonight," said Brian, "I thought the team gave as much as they could. The performance wasn't quite good enough but we didn't deserve to get beaten. There were very few chances in the match. We'd a few of those ourselves in the first half. I think we had a half chance in the second. We knew it was unlikely there would be many chances."

And the salt in the wound? Suspensions to three key players make what should have been a routine trip to Cyprus look fraught with danger now. The Cypriots put a little scare into the Swiss last night drawing back from one-nil down for a while before going under to a couple of late goals.

" The bookings? I'd say it was a bigger blow to lose the match. If we'd have won or drawn tonight I'd live with that."

Amidst the tribulations of the karaoke and the nightclubbing and the alleged bust-ups, kerr had called for a return to the old lusty throated Lansdowne. That much at least went to plan. It was an old fashioned night in terms of the passion and the physicality. There was no coup however.

"The atmosphere was sensational. It was a pity we didn't get the result that I felt the performance deserved."

The best response came by surprise. Floundering for questions that weren't either obvious or offensive, somebody commented that Kerr had disappeared down the tunnel very quickly after the match.

"Did I?" he said. "Well that wasn't intentional but I wasn't hanging around to talk to the referee. I was told he was a fussy - look I won't say the word - a fussy so and so and he confirmed that out there tonight."

Still the much touted fussiness of one German wasn't the sole difference last night. Thierry Henry's goal was a literal and metaphorical difference between the two teams. Ireland needed graft and a little droplet of luck to come their way. The French were always capable of producing a blinding moment of genius to get out of trouble.

"You're always disappointed at the manner in which you concede goals. It was a brilliant finish from Henry, you have to give credit to the forward in that situation. We knew he was capable of that. He's one of the stars of the world game. I felt we handled him very well generally. We gave them little opportunity to show their stuff. We made a little ourselves in the final third."

That creativity had less ease about it, however, than the French and after the goal the Irish attempts had a touch of desperation about them. Robbie Keane's touch showed signs of needing regular football. Damien Duff worked hard but ran into walls.

For Raymond Domenech, a half-ironic round of applause from the French media greeted his arrival into the pressroom. It has been so long since he heard the sound of French hands clapping that he looked momentarily flustered. He wasn't the only one.

His remarks came without the benefit of translation. Stranded a little like our team in monolinguality we looked on glumly and made a plaintive plea for "anglais s'il vous plait" which drew a smile from Domenech, that said, I owe you nothing. Suffice to that for the rest of the time he looked and sounded tres content.

The permutations of course are endless and skeins of hope can be extracted from those looking for them. Ireland travel to Cyprus, however, bereft of the creativity of Andy Reid and aching for the passion of Roy Keane, whose raging majesty was necessary the last time the two sides met on Cypriot soil. Four days later they face a young improving Swiss side who have everything to play for. It wasn't suppose to end like this.