A second straight defeat, he admitted, may take its toll on confidence
but Martin O'Neill seemed relaxed, if a little perplexed, by last night's loss to Turkey. What troubled him more was the manner of it, he said, with both his side's defending and its failure to put away some clear-cut chances clearly causing some concern.
“If on the training pitch we can improve ourselves defensively,” he said, “and someone can find the net regularly for us then we will give ourselves a chance.”
Even at this late stage in his career, Robbie Keane still seems the man most likely to step up to the mark on the latter front and the manager's reply underlines the fact that this was another disappointing night for his would-be replacement, Shane Long, who should have scored in the first half and may now pay a price for leaving O'Neill bewildered as to how to Ireland lost the game.
Created chances
"I thought we created a lot of chances in the game and I genuinely don't know how we lost the match," he said. "A combination of poor finishing and some great saves was part of it but we should have had the game out of sight at half-time. I was just saying in the dressing room there are big moments in the half where you have to defend stoutly. When those big moments come, you have to be stronger but we've conceded two goals tonight when, I think, there should have been less danger.
“That said,” he continued, “generally going forward I felt we were excellent. In terms of defending and scoring goals.” He added, however: “We should do better. Genuinely, I’m delighted, but that’s two games we’ve lost. I know it’s a friendly but we’ve been beaten and we’d gain more confidence from winning the game.”
That might have proved more achievable, of course, had the French referee not waved away a strong penalty claim in the opening minutes when Long was brought down inside the area. O’Neill was certain that the spot-kick should have been awarded yet he understood why the decision had gone against Ireland.
“I’ve seen it back on big screen and it was pretty blatant. I think the ref knows that. But five minutes into a friendly match he decided not to apply the rules. It’s a definite penalty and if it’s a definite penalty then it’s an automatic sending off.”
Unlock defences
Wes Hoolahan, he said, had deserved his latest man of the match with O'Neill observing that if his team is going to unlock determined defences then "he's the type of foil we'll need".
Damien Delaney got a mention for an ill-judged pass that eventually led to the opening goal but the manager was at pains to point out that the ball had actually been lost on the edge of the Turkish area after which it had travelled quite some distance unimpeded before the cross that led to Ahmet Ilhan Ozek’s header.
After the visitors had made it 2-0, Jon Walters grabbed a decent consolation effort but the game was still lost in front of a disappointing crowd, officially put at 25,191 by the association.
“I was actually delighted with the crowd,” insisted O’Neill. “It’s hard-end money they’ve parted with.”
With goalkeeper Rob Elliot to miss Saturday’s game against Italy in London Joe Murphy has been called up.
