O Neill: We should have taken three points
MARTIN O’NEILL rued the draw against Sweden which he admits means that the Republic of Ireland will have to beat either Belgium or Italy to survive the group stage. But the manager has told Ciaran Clark to forget about his costly own goal. The Aston Villa defender headed through his own net 19 minutes from time to ruin an energetic and enterprising team performance which had deserved three points after Wes Hoolahan’s fine opener. O’Neill, whose side face Belgium in Bordeaux on Saturday, said: ‘After this it is probably true that we need a big result against one of them (Belgium and Italy). It would have been great to know how Wales feel with three points on the board and it makes an awful difference. ‘But we fight on and have two very tough matches against teams that are pretty classy, and if I can take away anything it was that the players felt and looked accomplished. ‘We have a never-say-die spirit but also looked very comfortable, and that is important in international football.’ O’Neill, who lost Jon Walters to a recurrence of his achilles problem, added: ‘It was a winnable game. That is the disappointment as we should be sitting here with three points and not one. We had a great chance. ‘But we have more than fighting spirit, we have players improving at international level and spurred on by a magical crowd — there were some great performances.’ Central defender Clark was disconsolate at full time, but O’Neill said: ‘Ciaran should look at his overall game and be pleased with it and (forget) the own goal. ‘It is unfortunate as the pressure we were withstanding, we were coping with it. ‘We withstood corner kicks and they scored at a time when we were still pretty strong. ‘The goal deflates you, there is disappointment in the dressing room but we don’t think the players should be downhearted by the performance, we should be absolutely thrilled at what we achieved and the way we played.’ Meanwhile, scorer Hoolahan refused to be too downbeat. ‘It (my goal) is up there with one of my greatest moments,’ said the Norwich playmaker. ‘The guys were magnificent and we were unlucky not to get three points. In the first half and the start of the second half were excellent, but the last 20 minutes it got away from us. But the boys should be proud. ‘It’s a great point in the end, we will look forward to playing against Belgium.’