Despair for Cunningham

Gary Kelly, describing the way in which Ireland lost as "a kick in the privates", probably captured the mood of the Irish players. Still, a comparison with something that merely involves physical pain could hardly have adequately hinted at the despair felt by Kenny Cunningham as he wandered out into the night air.

"I have to take particular responsibility for the goal," he said with obvious anguish. "I defended it poorly, and to give a striker of Suker's ability that amount of space in the box is obviously very disappointing.

"It's made even worse by the fact that I thought by then we were going to be all right," added the defender, who up until those dying moments had been enjoying one of his best games in an Irish jersey.

"There were two or three moments during the game when I thought we might have lost it, but once you get to injury time you really expect to be able to see the thing out. That makes the mistake all the more painful really."

Goalkeeper Alan Kelly paid tribute to Cunningham for his contribution generally, and, told of the defender's comments about the goal, added: "Well, that's Kenny for you, as honest as the day is long. But it's really not fair to concentrate on one thing like that.

"Overall it was a good performance. Everybody performed the task they were supposed to well, but at times it seemed as though we were playing 13 men. We had a game plan and we stuck to it well, but that's the way it goes, you get one long, hopeful punt thrown at you during injury time and everything else just goes out the window."

From Niall Quinn, for all the disappointment, there was an understandable admiration for the way in which Suker took his chance. "Ironically it was just the sort of ball we wanted them to play, right up the centre, because we'd been dealing with them so well all night.

"This time, though, Suker just rolled the defender and put it away brilliantly. It was a real poacher's goal.

"Conversely enough, it might still work out well enough for us. The Croatians looked to be out of the group and now they're right back in it. Their players will be well up for the game with Yugoslavia, they'll be fighting hard for the points.

"Anything could happen in that game, but if Yugoslavia don't win then it's in our hands. In the meantime we've got to get on with it. That's the message Mick was trying to get through to us afterwards. He doesn't want to see any players feeling sorry for themselves. The hope now is to take three points in Malta and if we do that then we can still be all right in the end."