O’Shea: Fans were right to vent their anger

John O’Shea reckons it could have been even worse in the Aviva last Friday night — and he’s not just talking about the scoreline against Germany.

Asked about the fact that a large number of fans booed at the final whistle, the skipper for the night remarked: “I would say that they were exactly right to do it – I’m surprised the whole stadium did not do it when you lose 6-1.”

Speaking in Torshavn after the Ireland squad arrived in the Faroes, the Sunderland defender said he felt the team played into Germany’s hands in the second half.

“We had a good chat at half-time, we were a couple of goals down and we opened up,” he said. “That disrupted the structure that we had in the first half and if you do that against a confident German team — and then concede the penalty early on after the break — that obviously knocked the stuffing out of us. Unfortunately, that is not what we should have done. We should have regrouped and left it at 3-0. But we left ourselves open and they got the goals that they fully deserved because they played very well.”

Asked what he would say to people who are calling for Giovanni Trapattoni to step down, O’Shea opted to put the emphasis on how the team reacts on the pitch here.

“The beauty of sport is that people are allowed their opinion,” he said. “We will see how the players respond tomorrow. We have to put a performance back in to get ourselves back in with a chance of qualifying from the group. If we do that we will be able to go forward. It was not nice to be part of the 6-1 defeat the other night but, look, in football Manchester City beat Manchester United 6-1 last season and United beat Arsenal 8-2 around the same time.

“They were both high quality teams so it happens in football. It’s how you react to it that counts.

“Thankfully this game has come around really quickly and we can get three qualifying points towards qualifying for the World Cup. The Faroes have proven to be very difficult opponents already for other teams in the group but we have to be aiming to at least finish in the play-off place. If you want to do that then you have to be beating these teams.

“Obviously we are still massively disappointed by how it went the other night. We cannot forget it but hopefully we can move on from it.”