Houghton shows he is back to his best

WHATEVER about shade's of grey, they know the colour of money at Manchester United and when it comes to jetting their players away from international duty it's clearly no object either. Denis Irwin last night flew out of Prague via Copenhagen, where Peter Schmeichel was picked up, nursing a calf injury, which immediate prognosis suggested would, not endanger his club commitments.

The rest of the squad remained on, filing back to the team hotel with a degree of deflation, although very much encouraged by the overall display. Ray Houghton, who was entitled to first say after his tremendous performance, summed up the mixed post match dressing room mood when commenting. I thought we played well. We passed the ball around and I thought we did it well. At half time we should have been a couple up.

"In the second half the pot got a little bit bigger. The lad who came in for them in defence (Bejbl) was a bit more confident on the ball and started to spray long balls and that sort of stretched us. Then two goals, which I thought were offside."

Mention of three satisfying displays, "and a lot of plusses from the game", implored us to ask of his own impressive return for his first game since the September defeat in Vienna. "I came back and once again, I've been written off before, I thought I done quite well. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been playing in the middle of the park for Palace so it was no different for me today.

"I wouldn't really like to go back to the right side of midfield, I don't think I could really do it that well. You get much more of the ball and you're much more involved, and I enjoy it.

"This is a transition and these are only friendlies after all. We're trying new things and new players, and it all bodes well for Ireland."

Niall Quinn, reiterating these themes, said. "The whole process of these games is to take the positives and I would like to think there were a couple of good things there. The first half I thought we got in behind them on the flanks, got balls in the box to create chances against a team who are on the big stage next month so we have to be encouraged by that.

"I know it's very hard to ask people to wait and try and play along with us until we do get those things right. But I think those who know the game will be right behind us.

"The enthusiasm was good. It was like as if we carried on after our second half against Russia and everything was right. Unfortunately the first goal, at the time kind of broke us a little bit in that we thought it was offside. The referee wasn't the kindest, certainly he didn't help me out all day, and it does knock you back. He gave a free kick (against Quinn) for the first goal when I never actually made contact with the guy."

Mark Kennedy added to the widespread criticism of the German referee, saying he was "not a lot short of crap", as did Andy Townsend. "The referee wasn't giving us a thing. He was absolutely useless. Paul was blatantly pushed (in the area)."

Overall though the captain was encouraged. "We're fortunate enough in that results don't matter and at the same time what do we really learn if we go and play a team and win 6 or 7 or 8-0?"

Shrugging his shoulders, he answered. "Alright, everyone's happy for you but you learn more when you get beat. You find out more things. It's sometimes harder to pick yourselves up but you do learn more and I think the early signs have been encouraging. I think the boys can come away from Prague with a bit of credit."

Speaking as one of the debutantes, Curtis Fleming said. "It was different from league football. I was a bit surprised with the pace of it, kind of slow, slow, very quick, very quick but I really enjoyed it. I'd like to play a few more games just to get used to it. After 45 minutes I was blowing a bit but if you start the game you kind of get into the pace of the game.

"I'm just disappointed with the result. I thought the lads were quality in the first half, we could have been two or three up. Another thing I learnt was that you can't even put your hand on a fella, which is a bit different from the hustle and bustle of the Premiership when you're diving in. But overall really pleased to get a cap.