Ward: We deserve to be here

Beaten convincingly by Croatia.

Beaten out the gate by Spain. It has been a traumatic week for the Republic of Ireland, but Stephen Ward does not believe for a minute that the team has been out of their depth.

“I think that’s harsh,” said the Wolves left-back whose own performances have been held up to unforgiving inspection. “We’re up against some of the most in-form sides in Europe. Maybe people had that opinion but us, as players, we didn’t. We felt we were a match for anyone.

“We’re disappointed. We didn’t come here expecting to win it. Of course you want to try and do your best and go as far as you can. Sometimes you’ve got to hold your hands up and this is one of those times. We played quite well in the game [against Spain]. We now will go to Poznan and hopefully get a positive result for the fans.”

Ward’s defence of Ireland’s capabilities at these rarified heights is perfectly understandable — if debatable — and most probably instinctive but the former Bohemians man is more often than not a considered talker and doesn’t always lapse into the expected responses forwarded by dejected footballers in mixed zones.

His take on the goals conceded by Giovanni Trapattoni’s side this month, for example. While most of his team-mates lamented bad luck or their own individual inadequacies, Ward was savvy and honest enough to recognise that the trend of both games pointed inexorably towards defeat regardless of those less overarching factors.

“There were mistakes here and there but they could have scored some others,” he said of Spain’s relentlessness on Thursday. “At the of the day, when you play a team like that, they force errors. It’s not through the lack of trying.

“They have players who are at the best clubs in the world and to come up against them is tough. But, especially in the first half, it was pleasing the way we stayed in the game. Second half, they just lifted it to a different plane and we couldn’t really do anything about it.

“What they’ve done to us, they’ve done to some of the best teams in the world. They’re quite similar to Barcelona and they do the same to the best club sides in the world. You’ve got say they are the best side in the world.”

Ward’s defence of this Ireland team was buttressed by an assertion that this is the hardest group any team in green has ever had to negotiate. The trio of England, USSR, Holland in 1988 would arguably trump that argument but his reminder of the qualities lined up against Ireland in this tournament remains valid.

Shay Given has pointed to the difference in standards between World Cups and European Championships and it is hardly any coincidence that Ireland have emerged from the group stages three times in the former and failed twice in the latter.

“We’re talking about teams at the top of the world,” said Ward. “We were underdogs by far but we’re still disappointed and that shows the mentality of the squad. We are disappointed. We’re not just here and happy to be here. It hurts, don’t get me wrong, it did hurt.”

It may have been different had Ireland, rather than France, been drawn in Group D alongside England, Ukraine and Sweden but then Trapattoni’s side profited from a play-off draw which paired them with lowly Estonia late last year so the words “swings” and “roundabouts” may not be out of place.

Not everyone will be pacified by Ward’s protests as to the opposition’s strengths – Roy Keane, for one, would beg to differ – but they should at least be taken into account by the thousands of jurists sifting over the evidence of the Republic’s disappointing campaign in Poland.

“We just have to learn from it in the Italy game. We’re looking to win, get some pride back, give our fans something to cheer about. We’ll learn from this and obviously we’ve got a big World Cup qualifying campaign as well.”