PLAYED OFF THE PARK
No excuses from O’Neill as Welsh batter Ireland
MARTIN O’NEILL offered no excuses as he watched a ‘panicking’ Republic of Ireland crash to an embarrassing Nations League hammering last night.
A 4-1 thrashing by Wales reflected a calamitous night in Cardiff and ruined O’Neill’s 50th game as manager.
He insisted his desire to continue as manager was undimmed despite his team having now leaked nine goals in successive competitive games.
‘This was a tough evening for us but it has not diminished my enthusiasm for the job one jot,’
he insisted. Ireland offered little in attack, were over-run in midfield — Cyrus Christie excepted — and ripped apart in defence, despite the immense experience and Premier League know-how of the back five. Asked if the off-field stories of Declan Rice and Harry Arter were a distraction, O’Neill said, ‘No, it was the injured players who were my concern,’ he said. O’Neill accepted his team were out-gunned on their Cardiff return. ‘We were well beaten in the game and second best for pretty well all of the evening. We were missing key players, but we’ve still got to do better. ‘We have to look at a number of things, where we made a few mistakes... more than a few in fact.’ ‘When you’re well beaten your confidence takes a hit but we can fight back,’ he vowed. O’Neill called for his players to ‘be braver on the ball.’ ‘We’ve been saying “be positive, don’t start panicking. Play the right ball, deal with it. Be able to deal with it under pressure.” We didn’t do enough of that tonight.’ Of Gareth Bale, who scored a cracking second goal for the home side, O’Neill (above) said: ‘He’s a world class player who’s capable of unlocking any defences as we saw tonight.’ Captain Seamus Coleman felt Ireland ‘individually were poor’. ‘We have to play with passion and bravery and we didn’t do that,’ he admitted. In contrast to O’Neill, Ryan Giggs couldn’t stop smiling after his young Welsh cubs — four players under 22 — roared out a Nations League warning. ‘It’s great to get a win. Not many teams would have lived with us tonight. We’d have given anyone a game,’ said the Welsh boss. As Wales prepare to face a full-strength Denmark on Sunday, Ireland switch their focus for a friendly in Poland on Tuesday. Caoimhin Kelleher, the 19-year-old Liverpool ‘keeper, will train with the squad before they fly to Wroclaw on Sunday.