Shattered Smith bursting with pride

"Sometimes expressions say more than words," said Gerry Smith last night. In this case he was right. "I'm just a bit shattered, to be honest with you," he said, and his expression showed it.

"Maybe it would have been better if we'd been beaten 4-0, it'd have been easier to take, when you've worked your way back in to a game and it ends like that it's difficult to take.

"They were just fantastic, the way they came back. At that stage we just said, 'look, 10 minutes to go, get balls in to the box, don't start making six or seven passes, let's throw it in on top of them and see what happens'.

"And that's what we did. We got the two goals and probably could have got a third.

"We threw on a few lads - Kevin Doyle did well, Keith Fahey was smashing when he came on - and what a comeback, from 2-0 down.

"We showed that character again, but that's the kind of group they are. And I can tell you, it's a devastated group in there.

"Maybe overall Colombia were slightly better, I don't know, but the way we fought back . . . ah, nobody can fault the effort or the commitment or the hard work everyone put into it."

The early stages, it seemed like a bit of a struggle?

"Yeah, we just didn't get going in the first half, we couldn't get to grips with them, they were very, very good. We had a good chat at half-time and we took the game right to them, and I think for 25 minutes it was all us. But they caught us on the break, 2-0, it looked all over.

"We thought we could win it in extra-time, we really did. We were down a body (Stephen Capper) for the corner, which threw us. They got a goal similar to that one against Japan, so we knew how to deal with it, but we were a man short. That's the way."

Wining coach Reinaldo Rueda sounded like a relieved man.

"It was unnecessary for Colombian hearts to do what Colombia did in the last five or six minutes," he said.

"When Ireland scored the first goal they became more powerful, more confident and the very opposite happened to us.

"We always believed Ireland would be a threat in the air, they have very good headers of the ball, and finally they succeeded with their equaliser."

Did you believe you'd get the golden goal?

"Yes. But I also knew that most of the Irish team play in England so they are physically very strong and, as I said, strong in the air, so we knew they would be a big danger, we had to be very conscious of that.

"But I believed in my players, and I was very proud of the way they fought back again."

No less pride on Smith's part.

"As players I hope they will benefit from this and grow to be bigger and stronger men, bigger and better players. They've won the hearts of a lot of people over here.

"Overall, in 90 minutes, we weren't beaten in a game here, it was a golden goal that finished us, so that's something to be proud of.

"Scored eight goals, won the group, there are a lot of pluses.

"I'm just so proud of them. And I'd like to thank Brian (Kerr) for giving me and Johnny (McDonnell, Smith's assistant) the opportunity to manage this team, I just hope we didn't let anybody down, I don't think we did. We gave it all we could with what we had.

"And our staff were just fantastic, every one of them. Can't thank them enough. Sorry it had to end this way, we would have loved to have gone on."

Rueda and his team advance, then, Smith and Ireland depart. The players now return to their clubs where they will hope to make sufficient progress to ensure that this is far from the end of their international adventures.