McClean blasts ‘over-the-top’ comments while Moran insists even Fergie wouldn’t do better
JAMES MCCLEAN
“Last night is going to hurt deep for a long, long time, nothing can change or make what happened last night right, of course everyone is entitled to voice their opinion because it was simply not good enough from us on the night, we know that ourselves…
“But to stick the boot in and kick players and staff when they are down...players and staff have been great servants to this country, players and staff that have qualified for a major tournament and were unlucky to be knocked out to a great team in the last 16, players and staff that were one game from making it to a World Cup, players and staff that would give anything for this great country, with some over-the-top, beyond-football comments is bang out of order, hurting or not…
“And trust me when I say this, we hurt every bit as much as you do. I am proud and honoured to be an Irishman and to call every one of these men fellow countrymen and team-mates.
“Like I said, this will hurt deep, we have been written off so many times before and just like before we will bounce back.”
SHANE DUFFY
“I don’t know where to start about last night, it’s heartbreaking getting so close after so much effort but this group of lads will never give up. We go again and try make our country proud again.”
DAVID MEYLER
“Absolutely gutted to be knocked out of the World Cup. So proud to be part of this team and so proud to be Irish. Good luck to Denmark in Russia.”
PAUL MCGRATH
“Absolutely gutted for the supporters last night. Ireland expects more, if I was to pick four players who gave their all it would take a while. Anyway, better be shown up in our own country than at the at the top table! #Saddened.”
KENNY CUNNINGHAM
“I saw a lot of shouting and screaming last night and a lot of bitching amongst the players that I’ve never seen before.
“There’s nothing wrong with having a go at a player but there was an awful lot of that last night and that’s how it kind of manifests itself.
“Players can see they’re struggling and they don’t know how to fix it.”
KEITH ANDREWS
“Clueless, absolutely clueless. I really don’t know what I’ve witnessed tonight. No holding midfielder, lack of cohesion. It was gung-ho football and there was only going to be one winner.
“They were craving space to play in. We shut up shop on Saturday, we were so impressive defensively and tonight was so clueless. It hurt me watching that.”
GARY BREEN
“When we’re 1-0 up, they would have panicked, I’m sure of it. The crowd would have got behind us and they would have known how difficult it is to break us down.
“We’re overloaded, we have one man marking two on the edge of the box and I’m looking at that situation and thinking, ‘how can that possibly be so?’
“If the players don’t execute it, well then they’re not doing it enough on the training field.”
KEVIN MORAN
“I think they’ll consider what’s happened and decide whether they (O’Neill and Keane) want to stay or not.
“We don’t have any world-class players. Can we do an awful lot better? I don’t know. If you put the best manager in the world in there, if you got Alex Ferguson back from retirement, would he do any better? I don’t think so.
“There could be changes because there’s always the feeling that if there’s a poor performance you’ve got to change. Whether it would make a difference or not I’m not sure.”