One lapse not on at this level of game

Last Night was disappointing for the Irish team, who undoubtedly flew out of Belgrade realising that a point was squandered but they will also be aware that they are more than capable of mixing it with the Yugoslavs come the return fixture.

Unfortunately last night, we once again witnessed the essential importance of sustained concentration at international level. Gary Breen was at fault for the goal by Predrag Mijatovic, which stemmed from a run of the mill cross. Sadly for Gary, he had been coping quite well until that point, and the few errors he made afterwards are probably attributable to the fact that he knew he had blundered, that he was spooked a little.

He is a young lad with numerous positive qualities, but, without being overly harsh, he has the propensity to wander mentally, a trait which is simply treacherous in a would-be central defender. He slipped up once last night and we were stung for a goal. Unlucky, I suppose, in some respects.

Kenny Cunningham excelled beside him, clearing the ball effectively, covering on frequent occasions, tidily grafting through the mundane stuff which is at the core of central defending. Gary Breen will doubtlessly feel down about the goal. He has got to hold his hand up, accept responsibility for the error and vow not to replicate it. You could perhaps partly indict Steve Staunton for the goal as well. Stan seemed to freeze in disbelief when Gary jumped so early and he was left stranded when the ball broke.

In all, it was not a situation which should have troubled the defence unduly. The timing of the goal was especially cruel. I'd imagine the Yugoslavs were fully alive by then to the fact that they were not going to fashion a goal from their own creative fonts, that they needed to exploit any error they may force. To their surprise - and to the fans' obvious disgruntlement - Ireland played smartly and confidently from the outset. Nothing glamorous, but effective.

As we hoped, they took the sting out of the home ambition over the first half-hour. Sure, the Yugoslavs whipped the ball about with bewildering speed at times, but they never really carved us open in the last third of the pitch. Nothing particularly special was ever required of Shay Given. We looked reassuringly solid over the first 45 minutes.

Jason McAteer beavered selflessly, providing decent cover for Denis Irwin, who was having a busy time with Stankovic, and I think the Liverpool lad did enough to merit inclusion for the Macedonian match. As said, Cunningham was terrific, Niall Quinn was enterprising with what ball came his way and the combination of Mark Kinsella and Roy Keane looks particularly promising.

Kinsella was neat on the ball, showed some terrific touches and played his part in maintaining the structure. As for Roy Keane? Arguably his finest evening in an Irish shirt. Roy stands easily now beside Edgar Davids as the best central midfield player in Europe. He covered so much of the park, his passing was excellent, he was defensively sublime and he never got caught out of position. The onus is on Kinsella to get forward, given Keane's incredible work rate, and he did that. I like the partnership.

Damien Duff is obviously still developing, but last night was only his fifth game and it's tough to establish yourself as an international winger. He needs to polish up defensively, something Roy Hodgson has been drumming into him. But he is our sole option as a winger who can skin opponents and supply quality ball from the wing. For that reason alone, we need to persevere with him in the immediate future.

It's difficult not to reflect on last night and wonder what might have been. If Robbie Keane was fit, if Keith O'Neill had been in. . . You know, the way we have been playing, I feel we could have gone out with a 4-4-2 formation and imposed ourselves as a unit who presented a real attacking threat.

Unfortunately last night, once Ireland fell behind, it was difficult to envisage us regaining ground.

We just weren't inventive enough. It will probably be argued today that Ireland were denied a valid penalty. I disagree on the grounds that you simply do not get calls like that in foreign venues. Referees reserve decisions like that for home-town teams only.

So what now? Well, we simply move on. Forget about Yugoslavia. Things are still very optimistic. Last night Mick McCarthy's team emphasised their organisational capacity, their fluency as a team and underlined the sense of spirit and self-belief which has been a constant for Irish teams since Jack Charlton first hammered it into us.

Our immediate objective is to take at least a point from our visit to Macedonia. Of course we have huge games to come against the Croatians and the Yugoslavs again, but we also need to pick off the points against the so-called weaker nations in the group.

We witnessed nothing last night to suggest we aren't capable of that. A frustrating, grim little trip in the short-term, then, but one which will soon fade from memory if the next few games yield positive results.

(In an interview with Keith Duggan.)