REBUILDING IS KEY FOR BOSS

only to steer wide of

Kasper Schmeichel.

O’Neill (below) said: “Jeff was totally unaware. I’ve spoken to him. He thought it was a sloppy pass.

“It would have been an interesting thing if he scored the goal. It might have been one of those incidents where we might have to let them score at the other end.”

Denmark boss Age Hareide admitted he would have been livid had Hendrick scored.

“The referee has to see that our players wanted Fair Play as the Irish player went down – it’s against the rules of football,” he said.

Focus now switches to Tuesday’s clash with Wales who smashed O’Neill’s side 4-1 in Cardiff last month.

O’Neill said: “We’re rebuilding after what happened. It’s a clean sheet tonight and it’s a rebuilding process. We’re ready for Wales.”

Callum O’Dowda is the chief injury concern having been forced off at the break with a neck injury and complaining of dizziness.

O’Neill said: “We had pockets of possession and I thought we had a feeling we could do something with it but we wanted to create more than we did.

“I thought we started the game well but we allowed Denmark dictate things possession wise.

“And while they didn’t cause us that many problems, they had more of the ball and we were chasing it. But when we kept the ball much better in the second-half.”

And O’Neill praised Cyrus Christie who played in an unfamiliar role, tucked into midfield with Matt Doherty making his competitive bow at right wing-back.

“I thought Cyrus was terrific and I’ve a lot of faith in him. He is athletic and strong and he keeps himself in great condition.

“I thought Sisto might cause us problems and Cyrus was usually the first one out to deal with him and he also had a great shot on goal.”

Doherty was much-hyped coming into the game after scooping the PFA Player of the Month award.

And O’Neill said: “There was a lot of expectation on him. He didn’t do too badly.”

But O’Neill was not crying foul about Shane Duffy’s late penalty appeal, stating: “I think it would have been harsh on them.”