'Fantastic' Long leaves lasting impression

REACTION MANAGERS:THE RESULT is usually king for Giovanni Trapattoni but last night he declared himself "happy" with the performance from his makeshift side despite an 86th-minute Norwegian winner.

Privately, defeat may rankle, but he wasn’t letting on.

Shane Long picked up the man of the match award, and Trapattoni insisted he was “fantastic”, declaring he was now a viable option up front along with Kevin Doyle and Robbie Keane.

“We were unlucky. I was a little bit afraid about the last minute. My feeling was that we had four players who don’t play at their club and our condition might fade in the last minutes.

“But I saw many good situations this evening. I wanted to see their personality, players like (Greg) Cunningham and Jon Walters. They played very well in their positions.

“There was doubt about Cunningham but he played well. Walters the same and Shane Long.

“Their performance gave me a good sensation. Now I think we can also hope, because Shane Long had a fantastic game.

“It’s important that Shane Long plays every week and scores a goal. Also he took the ball and the penalty.

“If he continues playing in his club we have found our other striker.”

The manager was clearly impressed by a positive second half.

“I don’t remember a dangerous situation for us in the second half. We are a little disappointed with the result but we played with personality.”

He brushed away queries on his reluctance to play Seamus Coleman, even when it was pointed out that the crowd, not just the press, wanted to see the latest boy wonder in action.

“In this moment we had a good balance on the pitch. I thought we had changed many situations. The draw satisfied us because in the second half we played well.

“I wish to focus on the team,” he added when pressed again.

“I could also have left out Duff but it’s important on the pitch to have a team with balance. It’s not easy in two days to change a player’s habit. We can play with (Keith) Treacy or Coleman and another team and you could lose two or three-nil.

“I said before I will change but at this moment the team plays well and has balance. They had no shots for 45 minutes.”

Keith Fahey’s performance in the middle of the park was also a source of pleasure.

“He played well, he played simple, he played clever. Very well, because I said it would be a difficult game and they did the little things well and him and Whelan satisfied me.”

It emerged last night that there was further good news from Uefa yesterday morning when Aston Villa defender Ciaran Clark was cleared to play for the Republic after making his wishes clear.

“Last week we said we’d wait on Clark, and this morning Uefa said he can play with Ireland. Now we have options in every position now, not like six months ago or a year ago.”

Norwegian manager Egil Olsen admitted his side were “a bit lucky”, adding: “A draw would have been okay.

“After a slow first half I thought we came into the game but for the second half we had great problems defensively in periods. But we were lucky to win the game, even if the counter-attack was perfect.

“The Irish team surprised me and played very well in periods and were very good in the second half.”

When pressed to clarify as to why he was so surprised, he added: “I thought all the players who didn’t play would weaken the team more and that surprised me.”