Error costs Ireland dear

It was a weary, heavyhearted retreat for the Irish from Belgrade last night after the merit of a good performance had been lost in a moment of crass carelessness in defence.

Ireland had seen off the worst of the tempest and were beginning to edge towards a respectable result when Steve Staunton, so often a hero in the green, was guilty of the error in the 65th minute which undid all that had gone before.

Jovan Stankovic's cross, glancing off the head of Gary Breen, fell directly at Staunton's feet but instead of a forthright clearance the full back hesitated and Predrag Mijatovic pounced to drive it into the net.

In the sense that those in front of him failed to attack the ball, Staunton could feel that the blame was collective, but the end product consigned Ireland to a defeat they looked likely to escape for so long.

For more than an hour they competed successfully with a team with pretence of winning the European Championship, shackling the strike force of Mijatovic and Savo Milosevic so successfully that Shay Given was never troubled in the first half.

The signs were not lost on the Yugoslav manager, Milan Zivadinovic, who gambled on redressing the situation by withdrawing Dragan Stojkovic from midfield and introducing a third striker, Darko Kovacevic, at half-time.

Once in front, Yugoslavia settled for what they had and in spite of some good Irish moves they managed to protect Ivica Kralj's net with sufficient confidence to open their qualifying programme with a win.

Ireland fought the good fight and even in defeat Mick McCarthy may well have seen enough to reassure him that, with luck, he may yet bring his team to the finals.

To do so, however, he will need better luck than this on a night when they had two confident claims for penalties rejected by Swedish referee Karl Erik Nilson. The first materialised in the 54th minute when Jason McAteer took the ball past Kralj only to be tripped by the goalkeeper.

Incredibly, Nilson waved play on and insult was added to injury when the Yugoslav sweeper, Sinisa Mihajlovic, accused the Irishman of diving.

Later, the ubiquitous Mihajlovic appeared to handle the ball as Mark Kinsella attempted to hook it over his head, but again the response was negative when the Irish players looked to the referee.

Nor did Nilson endear himself to the Irish contingent in the 50,000 crowd when he failed to play the designated three minutes injury time at a stage when the visitors were in full cry of an equaliser.

It was a frustrating night, the more so since Damien Duff, whose selection had occasioned some surprise, delivered in full on his pedigree to create occasional moments of havoc in the Yugoslav defence.

McCarthy promised that his team would not set out to defend exclusively and in Duff's enterprise and the Herculean efforts of Niall Quinn, the evidence was laid out before us. True, there was times when Duff's lack of physique told against him, but with sleight of foot he still succeeded in imposing himself on the game.

Throughout his international career, Quinn has displayed courage above and beyond the call of duty. Seldom, however, has he battled so successfully as on this occasion as he proceeded to win almost every ball in the air in the Yugoslav penalty area during the opening 45 minutes.

The requisite support from midfield was not always in evidence, however, and that was regrettable in a game in which the Yugoslav defence looked uncommonly vulnerable on occasions.

By and large the Irish defence did well with Kenny Cunningham again rock-like at centre back and Breen, alongside him, finding considerable improvement on some of his earlier international displays this season.

As ever Denis Irwin was quite superb, strong and decisive in the tackle and sufficiently authoritative to persuade the Yugoslavs at an early stage to route most of their attacks down the other flank.

It meant that Staunton found himself under pressure almost from the kick-off and, surprisingly for a man of his experience, he wasn't always comfortable in his attempt to deal with it. His distribution was occasionally sloppy and even before the fatal error which led to the goal the outline of trouble had already come into focus.

If Duff was the big surprise in this robust Irish challenge, it was the familiar frame of Roy Keane which kept Ireland afloat for so long in midfield. There were occasions when even in this exalted company he looked a class above all others, always available for the ball and nearly always capable of using it effectively.

Alan McLoughlin, too, answered his critics with a good performance and if McAteer floated in and out of the game, he too could reflect that he had spared nothing before being replaced by Keith O'Neill.

Overall, it was a night when Ireland didn't get the reward they might have expected from 90 minutes of splendid effort and the point was not lost either on the manager or the 600 fans who had come to support his team.

The Irish anthem had scarcely ended when Quinn, climbing above Goran Djorovic, won the first of several significant aerial duels.

It would provide them with timely encouragement and when Dragan Stojkovic and Vladimir Jugovic in turn miscued passes, the early impression of the Yugoslavs was of a team vaguely out of sorts.

Sinisa Mihajlovic twice hit long-range frees comfortably into Given's waiting hands, but the goalkeeper was earned his keep for the first time with a smart save in the 34th minute. Mijatovic, getting the run on Cunningham, made a delicate contact with another Mihajlovic free but the Irish goalkeeper was perfectly positioned to save.

For all the possession he enjoyed around midfield, Stojkovic seldom hurt the defence with the final pass and in that situation the Irish survived without undue alarm until half-time.

Ireland fought bravely and at times with impressive skill after they went behind, but in the end there was no reprieve for that fundamental mistake which weighed like a millstone on the men in green.

Yugoslavia: I Kralj (FC Porto); J Stankovic (Mallorca), G Djorovic (Vigo), S Jokanovic (Tenerife), M Djukic (Valencia), D Stankovic (Nagoya), V Jugovic (Atletico Madrid), P Mijatovic (Real Madrid), S Milosevic (Real Zaragoza), D Stojkovic (Lazio), S Mihajlovic (Lazio).

Substitutes: D Kovacevic (Real Socieddad) 45 mins for Stojkovic; L Drulovic (FC Porto) 76 mins for Milosevic. N Grozdic (Obilik) 84 mins for Stankovic.

Republic Of Ireland: S Given (Newcastle); D Irwin (Man Utd), K Cunningham (Wimbledon), G Breen (Coventry), S Staunton (Liverpol); J McAteer (Liverpool), R Keane (Man Utd), M Kinsella (Charlton), A McLoughlin (Portsmouth), D Duff (Blackburn); N Quinn (Sunderland).

Substitutes: A Cascaraino (AS Nancy) 73 mins for Quinn, D Connolly (Wolves) 73 mins for McLoughlin, K O'Neill (Norwich) 82 mins for McAteer.

Referee: Karl Erik Nilson (Sweden).