Martin O’Neill: ‘With the fans behind us we’ll go and try to win the game’

The rulebook says in these situations that a game in which a late lead has been surrendered is supposed to feel like a defeat but there was little sense of deflation from the Irish players as they filed out of the Bilino Polie stadium in Zenica on Friday night. It was much too big a result for that.

Mixed zones produce their common themes and repeated phrases and here the message was predictable as it was simple and straightforward: “If you’d have offered us that beforehand, we have grabbed it with both hands.” In contrast to the nights when a brave face is being put on a bad defeat, it was pretty hard to argue.

"It was a great goal by Robbie and we're in a good position," observed Wes Hoolahan. "It was important to get the away goal and while we're obviously disappointed to concede so soon after, we'd have taken this before coming over.

“Hopefully we can push on from there. But it’s not over yet; we have a game to go still. It will be difficult now but going to the Aviva with the fans behind us we’ll go and try to win the game.

Hoolahan conceded that he had not had quite the impact on things that he would have liked but the pattern of the game proceeded, he insisted, much as the Irish players had anticipated, at least until late on when visibility became so poor due to the fog that a few thought the game might have be postponed and played again.

“It was hard to see up the pitch,” he said, “and it was getting worse and worse as the game went on. It was a difficult situation but (overall) it was as we expected. We knew they’d start well and have a lot of possession but the lads at the back, and in fact the whole team, defended great.

They pressed us well and the conditions didn’t help, I didn’t get on the ball as much as I’d have liked but the main aim was to come away with a result and we did that.”

Stephen Ward saw more than his share of action Edin Visca repeatedly looked to get the better of him but like the rest of the back four he battled from beginning to end, or in his case, the 67th minute when Marc Wilson was brought on to provide fresh legs in the left back position. The Dubliner, in any case, emerged with his held high from what a tough test and, having played his part in the win over Germany, can point to the fact that the home side here was still scoreless when he left the pitch.

“It was difficult to be honest,” he admitted afterwards. “It as my first game (start) in a month or so and it is something that I will have to address because it is hard to be at your best.

“We were disappointed with the goal we conceded,” he continued, “but if you had offered us that at the start of the match we would have taken it. Footballers always hope for perfection. We wanted the perfect result. One nil would have been as close to perfect as we could have wished for but even if we had have won, the tie would not have been over.

“We were never going to qualify for the finals tonight. We just had to make sure that we were in a position to go into Monday’s game with something to play for. And we achieved that.”

The left back’s lack of first team action - he came on last week in the league for the first time this season - was most likely a factor in the Bosnians’ decision to target him so persistently through this game but Ward said that the approach was expected and that the real disappointment was that having generally held up to the pressure they were put under, Ireland could not do better when it came to retaining possession.

“Yeah, we knew that would be their outlet,” he said. “It was a little bit open at times but we were disappointed that when we had it we didn’t keep it a bit better because there were gaps for us to play in.

“But listen,” he reiterated, “I think if you’d offered us this at the start of the weeks to take back to Dublin we’d have taken it. It would be great (to seal the deal now). Everyone in that dressing room wants it to happen. We couldn’t have qualified tonight regardless so to take a 1-1 draw back is a decent result. We’ll get some bodies back over the weekend who haven’t been here tonight and take it from there.”