Ireland puts himself back in frame

Such was Craig Bellamy's despondency it suggested he'd rather be anywhere else than in the bowels of Croke Park at that very moment, maybe even swinging clubs in the Algarve, although so dazzling was the diamond stud in his left ear and so flamboyant the designer dude's handbag under his arm, or however you describe these things, you were almost so deafened by the opulence that you were in danger of missing his brief post-match thoughts.

"It didn't happen for us and we're gutted," he said, "the mood is very low in the camp, but what would you expect? We didn't do ourselves justice. We felt it was a game we could have got something from, so we're all very disappointed we didn't."

The Irish players didn't exactly emerge from the Croke Park dressingrooms high-fiving, having beaten by a mere goal, in front of 72,000 of their own supporters, a dismally poor team, on a day that deserved better.

Indeed, Damien Duff just put his head down and headed straight for the team coach, looking no more cheerful than he did after the game in San Marino. But that might have been down to the mere sight of the cameras, microphones and recorders that he's clearly had his fill of.

Stephen Ireland, at least, had something to smile about, his third goal in four games. "I'm very happy to be honest - and relieved. I didn't even see it go in, I only knew it did when I saw the fans screaming, it was really emotional. The highlight of my career so far, definitely. Yeah, the second half wasn't very pretty, but we got what we wanted."

Only 20, but already the Cobh man has developed a habit of speaking his mind. When asked if he was surprised to be picked in the wholly unfamiliar position of the right side of midfield, before being switched to a more forward and central position, he said: "Absolutely. I'm not really confident out there, to be honest," before adding the softener: "but I wanted to put in hard graft for the team, I was just happy to be playing and starting at Croke Park".

Immediately after the game, Steve Staunton ruled Ireland out of Wednesday's match, after he hobbled off in the second half, but yesterday the Manchester City midfielder put himself back in contention. "The injury isn't as serious as I feared, I'll have a scan on it, but I think I'll be okay for Wednesday. I felt a bit of tightness in my groin in the warm-up, it got worse as the game went on, but I came off at the right time, before any real damage was done. But I was gutted to come off, it's a hard decision to put your hand up and say you're injured, but as I've grown up I've become more mature about it."

To Ireland's left Shay Given was throwing an eyebrow or two heavenwards when asked about his first-half run-in with Bellamy, his former Newcastle team-mate. "To be honest I thought he two-footed me a little bit, but it was just one of those things, a 50-50 ball," he said. "I took a bit of a whack on both legs, but I'm fine, no problems."

He added: "The pitch was a bit of a let down to be honest. Had it been a bit more slick and smoother we would have passed it a bit more."

Wide, too. "Yeah, it looks a bit too wide, at times you'd look like Ronan O'Gara playing for touch, so you had to be careful," said John O'Shea.

Second-half substitute Stephen Hunt, though, had no complaints. He's as bubbly in the mixed zone as he is on the pitch. "It was perfect for me, it was 75,000 in Croke Park and you dream of playing there and you try and do your best, and I'll always try and do my best. The game had opened up when I got on, I won a few frees, did well. My attitude was to go for it, and I love doing that, getting on the ball and making things happen - you might as well try to entertain," he smiled.

Paul McShane? What do you know about Slovakia? "It's beside the Czech Republic, innit? I don't know, to be honest," he laughed.

Time, perhaps, to dust down the videos between now and Wednesday evening.