'If I'd deserved to be sent off I'd say so'

POST-MATCH REACTION:THE BULK of the Irish players left Lansdowne Road looking well satisfied with their night's work but for Kevin Doyle, who had played so well through so much of the game before being sent off late on, the sense of disappointment was both unmistakeable and understandable.

The 28-year-old had picked up two bookings in the space of 12 second-half minutes late on and even though the first had been enough to ensure he would miss next month’s initial play-off game, the second, for what the referee saw as an elbow on Karlen Mkrtchyan, meant a long walk to the dressingroom; the first for the striker in a very long time.

“It’s my first sending off since I was about 12,” he said before adding the previous one had been “similar . . . harsh. You think that if you’re going to get sent off after that amount of time then you’re going to get sent off in style,” he continued with as much good humour as he could muster, “you do something that deserves it, but that’s it.”

The striker denied there had been any intentional use of the elbow and clearly felt hard done by and with Robbie Keane a major doubt for next month’s games, he was quick to console himself with the fact that other Irish forwards have done well and can step into the breach.

“If I’d deserved to be sent off I’d say so,” he said.

“I’d just say that I lost the head but I didn’t. The referee made a bad decision (the first sending off) and he was trying to even the game up a bit, I think.

“I wouldn’t like to go up and try to hurt someone on purpose and I didn’t.

“You could obviously see that he was up and playing on in about five seconds so I didn’t connect. Maybe I glanced him or he headed my elbow . . .”

It had, he admitted, been a slightly different story with the earlier incident.

“The first booking was a silly one for me. I’ve slid in, made a tackle and didn’t win the ball. I was back trying to help out but I’ve got to accept that was my one bad tackle, although I felt I didn’t get anything when there were fouls on me.”

As for next month, he observed: “It’s going to be a bit annoying not being available for the game but we’ve got excellent players. Coxy was brilliant, Longy’s been great this season and Walters has been brilliant when he’s played. They all know the way we play, they’re used to the formation so it’s not like we have to bring in anyone from outside.”

That familiarity between personnel and with the system, he insisted, had bred confidence last night, with the Wolves striker insisting the Irish players had always felt comfortable.

“It wasn’t as nervy as I thought it was going to be, to be honest,” he said. “Obviously they had the sending off, which I thought was harsh too, but we were reasonably comfortable over the course of the game.

“Once they go down to 10 men it makes it very comfortable for our men but we went 2-0 up and it was similar to Andorra, we did our job and apart from being slightly nervous that they might score with five minutes to go and put us out of the seeded position which obviously would have affected us going into the play-offs, I never thought that we weren’t going to win the game.”