‘This one is so tough to take’
Long and Co rue missed chance
FOR Shane Long, the result was ‘ hard to take’ as the Republic of Ireland snatched a draw from the jaws of victory in the first 2-2 draw at the Aviva Stadium
‘It’s a devastating blow because I thought we’d done enough to win that game. It’s a huge blow as we need to be beating Austria,’ said the man of the match.
‘It’s hard to take at the moment, and I’m sure we will look back on it as two points dropped. We have to get our heads up for the Faroe Islands,’ he added.
Conor Sammon saluted the workrate and contribution of his attacking partner. ‘Shane was brilliant. Having played with him in the Poland game I was really looking forward to playing with him once I knew I was starting,’ he said.
‘He’s got the pace and strength. He was very unlucky as well with the back heel that comes back off the post. On another night it goes in, or comes back for a tap in. On a personal level, I enjoyed the massive game we had.’
Sammon’s role was to win balls in the air and give Long the chance to exploit the Austrian defence with his speed.
‘The manager talked about me trying to win the flick-ons for Shane to feed off in behind because he’s got so much pace and can cause teams problems.
‘He showed by winning the penalty and throughout the game as well. He was a real threat.’
Sammon was unsure if Long was tiring when withdrawn late in the second half, saying: ‘He wasn’t tiring that I could see, to be honest. We all put in a big shift.’
Did Trapattoni say why Long was taken off? ‘No, I’ve no idea. It does fell like a defeat although it is a point gained.’
So what does the result do to Ireland’s chances of qualifying?
‘I think we have to look at the way the table is set up and it is very tight. We still have lots of big games to play, we have to play Austria again and Sweden again.’
Seamus Coleman couldn’t conceal his dismay at the late goal concession. ‘We were killed with a sucker goal there at the end. I’m still a bit bitter at the moment.
‘Maybe it was just destined to come but I thought we were going to end up with three points
‘It’s really heartbreaking the way it finished and we can’t afford any more mistakes in the group.
‘It would have been great to finish up with the four points from these two games but it wasn’t to be and everybody’s very disappointed.’
Double goalscorer Jon Walters could take no personal pleasure from his performance and after last week i nsisting f our points was the target from the Sweden and Austria games, the Stoke hitman admitted the result was ‘not good enough’.
‘It was definitely there for us to score another. We had a couple of halfchances, a breaka- way, some corners and James [McClean] almost found the top corner with a free-kick.
‘If we had have got that third it would have been game over but that’s the way football is, it wasn’t to be and a last-minute goal is hard to take.
‘I think I said last week that four points would have been the target this week, at least. But we would have been more than happy with that,’ said the 29-year- old, who notched his third and fourth goals for his country.
‘But we’ve got to get ourselves up for the next qualifier against the Faroe Islands here and obviously that’s a must-win, then we’ve got Austria away and Sweden at home and they’re must-win games as well.’
Walters spoke after leaving a downcast dressing room, with the players and the manager knowing this result leaves qualification for Brazil in a most precarious position. ‘It was actually a pretty quiet dressing-room. With the last-minute goal it’s always the case. There’s not much you can say,’ said Walters. ‘Maybe a sub in the last minute would have killed the game off but it’s all ifs and buts at the end of the day, we came away with one point and not three and it’s not good enough,’ he added. ‘There are lots of twists and turns to come to the end of qualifying, but we’ve got to play both teams again.’
Ciaran Clark will return to Aston Villa for a scan on his shoulder, but the defender was more than willing to shoulder the blame for the error that handed Austria the opener.
‘It was one of those things — it was a mistake by me. I should have put it down the side but I took a touch instead and the lad has nicked it.’
David Forde was left ruing the late errors that allowed Austria to equalise in the final minutes of a game Ireland could have wrapped up early in the second half.
Helpless to keep out Martin Harnik’s close-range opener, the Millwall stopper was beaten by David Alaba’s 20-yard effort after it took a slight but telling deflection off Sean St Ledger.
‘We’re very disappointed. I thought we had done enough to win the game, we should have closed it out and got the three points, so it is very disappointing,’ said the 33year-old keeper.
‘There were probably a few errors in the closing minutes and we should have seen out the game. So, we’ll learn from that. There was valuable experience to take from that game, so that will be a positive going forward,’ added Forde.
After the hard- earned draw in Stockholm, last night felt like one step forward and two steps back.